I haven't taken time to do this in several months. It wasn't that I didn't have anything to say. The problem was how am I going to say what I think. It has become increasingly clear that we, as a people, as Americans are becoming less tolerant of each other and even less understanding of immigrants and foreigners. What has caused this change? I have several thoughts on this. You may feel free to disagree at any time and choose to stop reading. I will not waste any time arguing with you.
First, the terror attack of 9-11-2001. It seems to have stoked our fears about folks of Middle Eastern descent. Made some of us strike out at Muslims. I can't provide numbers as recent as I would like but the reality looks something more like this. According to numbers from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention from 2001 to 2014, 440095 people died in the United States from the use of firearms. This would include deaths from homicide, suicide and accidents. The United States Department of State indicates that during the same time period 369 United States citizens were killed in incidents of terrorism overseas. In the same time period 3,043 people were killed inside the United States in domestic acts of terrorism. This brings the total to 3,412. So, it is clear that you are much more likely to be killed by a firearm in an incident that is not classified as foreign or domestic acts of terrorism. It would seem our fears regarding death in a terror attack are not especially rational. Yet our political leaders are always ready to stoke those fears. There is a "caravan" of Central American refugees walking through Mexico apparently headed for the United States boarder. It has been suggested it is an invasion and contains individuals of Middle Eastern descent or MS 13 gang members. Regular U S Army troops are being sent to meet them at our boarder. Makes little sense to me as they are almost 900 miles away and walking. It will take this group weeks to get here. The only reason to send troops and make a big issue of this is to stoke fear prior to Tuesday and the midterm elections. Big group of non English speaking brown people are headed our way to invade us and steal our jobs. What a huge crock of bullshit.
Second, social media. Take a little time and read the comments on some Facebook posts. It makes you wonder how, and perhaps more relevantly, why you were ever friends with some of those people. I have stopped commenting on political posts on Facebook. I use it to keep up with what friends are doing in their lives not what they think about elected officials. The true horror of media online is reading a news article and then reading the comment section below. Folks hide behind online names and say all kinds of horrible and insulting things to each other. While a zippy insult may feel personally satisfying it does nothing to settle issues or raise the level of political discourse. It is our collective effort to reduce ourselves to something similar to poop throwing monkeys at the zoo. Lots of noise and shit throwing that essentially accomplishes nothing.
Third, personal computers, tablet computers and "smart" phones. We literally have the collective knowledge of mankind at our fingertips. We see some picture of George Washington, Abraham Lincoln. Donald Trump, or Barak Obama with a statement allegedly made by them. It appears to be something they said and it lines up with our current political beliefs so we "like" it or share it on our news feed as if it is true. A simple 30 second check on Google would reveal if it is accurate or not but seriously folks who has time for that. I have done those checks and commented back to the person who posted the erroneous information. All is has gotten me is grief. They don't care if it is accurate they just like what is says. Facts matter.
For me our lack of civility is driven by those factors. Fear, social media being not so social and ignorance. It doesn't have to be true it just has to sound true.
Tomorrow- leadership.
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