Dream to Nightmare

The followin' is my response to a day that consisted of a Deluge of Commentary, Partisan Spin, and Dead Up Bullshit and Ugliness surroundin' the efforts to take advantage of the anniversary of a particularly eloquent and influential speech delivered on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial by Dr. Martin Luther King, fifty years ago.  I failed to scratch up a suitable image to pair with it until recently.  Unplanned, but...

  

Ya know, we all know Pieces of Shit of all colors, shapes, and sizes.  This is a statement that few would deny, at least at the beginnin' of a conversation.  Hell, some of 'em may be family or friends, somethin' worthy of self-deprecatin' remarks to be met with laughter.  And yet, when we choose to piss and moan about Percieved Injustices, the Conversation all too often devolves into some kinda Proclamation regardin' Race.  

Whether this is due to Culture, or Upbringin', or somethin' else, I ain't smart enough to say.  I would really like to believe that most of us are above a thing such as this.  But, alas, more often than not, things seem to travel the Short Circuit that leads back around to Color. 

Sure, we like to claim that it's "not just that", that we're experiencin' a legitimate reaction to unfairness and abuses rife through programs of Public Assistance, Affirmative Action, even maybe just a percieved sense of ingratitude, of entitlement.  Or, maybe it's mumblin' kids with their caps on backwards, their boxers showin', or roofers that work too damn hard and make the rest of us look lazy that we find annoyin' and embarrassin'.  The Race Thing?  That just happens to be an incidental (though legitimate) device that assists us in our attempts at self-expression and validation of a particular interpretation of the Current State of Things.  Just another simple concept makin' its home in our Sociologic Tool Belt.

The Civil Rights Movement was not some knee-jerk reaction to Make-Believe Slights or Exaggerated Tales of Injustice.  The Civil Rights Movement arose in response to Real Events-  ugly, brutal events, perpetrated by the Base, the Ignorant, the Intolerant.  Events that didn't just simply serve to perpetuate the callous marginalizin' of a particular demographic in respect to Opportunities and Fairness, but crossed into the Dark Theater.  The Civil Rights Movement was a response to the Untenable and the Unacceptable- includin' Terrorism and Murder.  Atrocities Committed in the Name of Racial Purity.  Cowardly Acts, ofttimes takin' refuge behind the Flowin' Robes of Christianity.  The Civil Rights Movement was a valid reaction by people that had been subjected, or were witness to the subjegation of others, to Hate and Intolerance.  Swollen, fevered Hate.  A Cultivated Cancer.

I don't know if the laws enacted by our Government decades ago were exactly what was needed.  If the original intent was to hopefully offer up somethin' a little more fair and honest to a people for whom bullyin' and intimidation were a part of everyday life, it has probably helped to a degree.  If it was intended to help bring that same group into the political process that is promised to all citizens of this great country, some progress was made.  If the intent was to foster Tolerance, Understandin', Acceptance, then it has proved to be a Catastrophic Failure.  

Perhaps the assumption was that if all Men (and Women) were viewed as equal in the Eyes of the Law, then all reasonable people would accept it as Fact and move forward accordingly.  Sadly, this assumption does not take into consideration that the Concepts of Contempt and Hate have no basis in Objectivity, Rational Thought, or Reason.  These are Vulgar, Primal Concepts.  These are Instincts.  Cold.  Selfish.  Calculatin'.

And, as much as most of us would like to believe that such Vile Concepts are all but extinct, they are quite alive and thrivin' in our America.

Damnit.

Fish