By Tamra Ford
First, I would like to say that I encourage meaningful conversation from this post. I hope that you comment freely with respect and understanding and I will do the same. As soon as the conversation turns hostile, I will no longer reply. Thank you in advance for taking a moment and reading the thoughts I have carefully gathered, even if you don’t agree.
This isn’t the world I want my son to grow up in. We are so separated in this country that we can’t even agree if the Coronavirus is even real or not. It makes me so proud to see changes being fought for and I am ready to see those changes put into effect. But first, some things will have to end.
Ending racism starts with you. (Yes, me too) Racism is any race that is different from your own being treated differently purely because their skin is different. Can you honestly say you have never seen racism? No. Did you stand up against it when you saw it? I didn’t either, not every time. Racism happens every day. Sometimes it is so obvious it’s shocking just how bold a person can hate. Sometimes it is just a facial expression or careless, rude words. I have seen it on many occasions in my life. It has been taught from past generations to their children, nieces, nephews, grandchildren, neighbors, and so on. It has been taught in “harmless jokes” and stereotypes. It takes changing how you think and act in your everyday life. I truly hope it ends with this generation. We are one race. We are the human race.
Let’s also end some of the misconceptions that are dividing the country even more. If I support the Black Lives Matter movement and the end of racism, then that somehow means I don’t support police officers. I have the utmost respect for the people that place themselves between harm’s way and their communities. I also refuse to be naïve enough to think that all police are fair and equal to all. I can’t see any harm in wanting police officers to have more training and better procedures to follow. Because I believe that, some people assume I also want to defund the police. If anything I want to FUND the police. Continuing education is the answer. Encourage our police in every way possible to be the best they can be. The good law enforcement officers are the ones that believe in the good of the world and they know of the bad and genuinely want to protect their community. There are far more of those than the bad. I don’t even understand why anyone in this country would want to remove all law enforcement other than to request something so crazy, that the option they actually want doesn’t look so bad.
We should end the showing off of “historic” monuments and statues that are from the civil war era. I fully understand wanting to memorialize soldiers that fought and sacrificed for what they believed in. The vast majority of them were built between the 1890s and 1950s, which matches up exactly with the era of Jim Crow segregation, which is when state legislatures passed laws to disenfranchise and remove political and economic gains made by blacks during the Reconstruction period. So let’s be honest, most of these aren’t true memorials; they are statues glorifying the people that supported slavery. Why would we keep those reminders in public areas; areas that people walk by to do business and that are unavoidable? They are offensive and discourteous. Moving them to proper places like cemeteries and museums is not too much to ask for. It is not about erasing history, it is about teaching history without flaunting that deep down there’s still plenty of people who wish the South would rise again. Do you know what happened to the statue of King George III at the end of the American Revolution? It was torn down because he no longer had a say in America and its ideals. That’s no different in asking that confederate flags and monuments supporting the history of encouraging slavery to be removed.
When I scroll through local newspapers, local tv news stations, community leaders, and Facebook articles and the comments are so hateful and petty. I am ashamed that people can’t stop for a little while to think about the other side for a moment. To show empathy for a fellow human, someone that has gone through hard times; not unlike yourself. Open your mind for a few minutes to the possibility that you have things in common with that person. It is okay to not agree with your family and friends. You do not have to jump on the same bandwagon as your neighbor. You can even have civil discussions without name-calling and urge people to see another side. It’s also perfectly acceptable to say I don’t know everything and I would like to learn more about it. It’s even okay to say we will just agree to disagree. The name-calling over politics is just disgusting. Go ahead, call me a libtard to my face and see what happens. Just because you are hiding behind a screen does not give people the right to be that damn ugly to one another. If you have one of those friends, I hope you can explain this to them in a polite manner that doesn’t call out their ugly. I certainly wouldn’t wish for you to degrade yourself to do to them exactly what they do daily.
While I’m at it, having a few cartoon characters change their ways is not something that needs to be blown out of proportion. Some parents are so against guns they would rather not have children’s shows show their child firearms to make them as casual as Sunday dinner. That is absolutely fine because as a parent you should teach your child what you want them to know about guns. I also want what most would call gun control. Now that does not mean I want guns taken away, or the right to own them restricted. I want to make sure the people that own guns are smart enough to do so. As a child, I was taught all about guns, safety, and everything that goes along with owning a firearm. Not everyone gets that training from their family, and being able to walk into any gun shop without any understanding of what they are about to purchase is just as scary as handing a child a loaded weapon.
Change is difficult, especially when you don’t really want those changes, but it is happening. You can either be brought into the future kicking and screaming (showing your ass) or you can be a productive member of society and offer constructive ideas on how to make the world a better place for us all.