So my story "The Lesson" has been shared. It's more of a fable styled story. I wrote it to open the doors to some thoughts and discussions about prejudices of all types. There's dozens of prejudices in our daily lives. Prejudices about color, sex, race, religion, class and body type. I know I have certain prejudices too. I'm no Saint. Do you ever stop to think about what your own prejudices are? Those who know me have heard me make jokes about race, religion and even of the sexes. But those who ever dealt with me know that I never ever have dealt with someone with a prejudice heart. Growing up in a place like New York City (Manhattan) teaches you rather quickly to learn to deal with people based on their words and their actions. Unfortunately, I have seen some fellow New Yorkers who have chosen not learn from those childhood lessons. In any event, I learned as a young guy the word "brother" can transcend family DNA, race and ethnicity.
My kids chide me when they hear me make an ethnic joke. I look at them and shake my head. They would never make it though a season of TV shows from the 1970's like "The Jeffersons" or "All In The Family" or a movie like "Blazing Saddles". They have no idea that without some informal social freedom to provide levity to our slightly different cultural, regional, ethnic norms - we might not have been able to break down many "barriers" the past 40 years. Now I know that humor can be a double edged sword. You can use it to either ease tensions between different people or you can use it to try to belittle someone different from you, by trying to make yourself look superior. I choose the former. I use my humor to build a bridge, start a dialog and make the spoken party laugh. I am not particularly concerned about being politically correct. Loving people, respecting their humanity as equals is not a fad to me. It's just a way of life. We can always joke about life.
This past Monday, as President Obama was sworn in for his second term, I kept reading snippets of news and commentary by Americans stating that we are more divided now than ever before. I'd like to challenge everyone believing that notion to rethink that. Where in the last 100 years was America a completely uniformed country? There are hundreds of book titles that talk about the different Americas within America. There's the North, South, East and West America. There's the White America. There's the Chinese, Black and Hispanic America. There's the men vs women America and the wealthy and the poor America. There's not one single decade the past 100 years in which Americans haven't had some form of division. I can accept that other voices within America are rising and speaking out - using their political freedom and growing numbers that they haven't had in the past. What's wrong with that? This is a democracy, isn't it? Who has been speaking for them before these two recent presidential elections? Either way, the upside is that when our nation is challenged by outside forces - we have the time tested ability to galvanize our resources and unite like no other country in the world - regardless of our differences. We should always appreciate that strength.
Given all of our different interests locally and regionally it's preposterous to think that on a national level we can all be one big happy family every day and on every single issue. Anyone who can claim that we are always together on all issues, must also believe in the Tooth Fairy. Just look at our past presidents. There are people who have loved and hated Kennedy, Johnson, Nixon, Ford, Carter, Reagan, Bush Sr, Clinton, Bush Jr. and now Obama. Not any one of them were loved by 100% of the people, 100% of the time. In different parts of the country and among different ethnic groups, each one of them represented something different to different people. My mother only ever had the pictures of three presidents hanging in her house. They were Kennedy, Carter and Obama (Nope not Clinton). She also loved NYC Mayor Lindsay and later Mayoral candidate Bella Abzug (who lost to Koch). She was only lukewarm with Mayors Koch and Dinkins, and never really warmed up to Giuliani. "He's just too mean."
Yet today, we sit back in reverence of Dr. Martin Luther King's birthday and his role in our American history. His birthday is a national holiday, but few remember the enormous fight it took to get it to become a national holiday during the 1980's (and it's still not recognized in all states). What's even more ironic is that few of us today can even appreciate that during his own political lifetime ('50's - 70's), absent his assassination, he would have NEVER been voted as the President of the United States. We need to take ownership of that reality. I GUESS WE WERE DIVIDED THEN TOO? Imagine that? Generations of born Americans had to protest for their right to vote and have equal rights and were beaten, attacked by dogs, shot at and murdered for pretesting that right just 50 years ago? Haven't we been sending troops to other countries the past 50 years to defend democracy? Then whose democracy was it that we were defending in America back then?
During some of my formative years, I was socially educated by black men who participated in WW II, the Korean and Vietnam wars. Yet all of those men came back home and faced overt and in some cases hidden "institutional" racism. No matter how much they defended "our freedom" overseas, or how close they came to losing their lives as Americans, they returned home and couldn't drink from certain water fountains, eat at certain lunch counters, use certain bathrooms or ride buses up front. Many of them were forced to move into neighborhoods where the infrastructure was already deteriorating around them, or even removed as soon as they arrived. Go research the life work of Mr. Jacob Riis in New York City. His photographs and writing accounts will astound you. Here's another historical fact - people of African decent have fought and died in every war this country has been, starting with Cyprus Attucks in the Boston Massacre - the "first American" to die in the fight for our nation's own freedom from British rule. That goes all the way back from 1770 to our present day in the Gulf War, folks. Who still wants to talk about division in America and proper past representation in the political playing field?
The truth is as much as Dr. King was loved in certain White and African American communities, he was also disliked in some of those same communities and regarded as a troublemaker. The FBI had investigated him and wired tapped him for years. In fact, the director of the FBI at the time, J. Edgar Hoover, had a smear campaign against Dr. King and other Civil Rights leaders for many years. He called them among other names, Communists. Just Google it folks. Ironically, it is the legacy of Dr. King (and other Civil Rights leaders) achievements in the 1950's and '60's that have resonated over time to younger generations, that have allowed others in this country to be given the chance to engage in the political process and be given more of a chance to perhaps even become president.
But let me dial that back a minute. If we want to talk "progressive" and most of us Americans think that we are more progressive than other countries...well let's chew on this for a minute. Since the Declaration of Independence in 1776 (237 years ago) and of the 44 men who have served as the President of the United States...how come we Americans have never had a woman elected as President? And in my lifetime only 2 women as serious vice-presidential candidates? It's rather odd that nearly 50 other countries around the world have had women as leaders of their countries in the past 100 years, yet not America? If we have no prejudices and are progressive as we proclaim - how come we've never have had a American woman seriously considered for the job? I mean not even for one term?
Do we think American women just started reading and becoming intelligent enough to handle the job? Do we think that American women haven't had the capacity to get involved in politics these past 237 years? I completely reject either notion! Sorry to say, but we have had some very brilliant women as Senators, Congresswomen, CEO's, Governors and Cabinet members the past 50 years alone - all of whom have been overlooked for the job. For those who care to look back you'll see that Palin and Ferraro (both as vice-presidential candidates) were not even be the cream of this 50 year crop, yet we've never managed to get the best near the Oval office. Thankfully we have managed to have a number of great First Ladies in the White House the past 100 years to balance things out. However, it's still not quite the same. Perhaps with the new election results this past November, which added additional highly intelligent and politically savvy women to Congress, we'll have more to choose from in 2016?
Perhaps this idea of more inclusion in the political process is the one idea that we can all rally around? Or is it? Ehh...why worry? Two months after she's elected, there will be people in America who oppose her - spewing some hateful words about Madam President anyway. Just take a bipartisan glimpse of the list of vile criticisms attached to every female politician who has stuck her head up above the men within the two major political parties. Most of the comments are nothing to smile or laugh at and are designed to intimidate (via discrediting) some of the very best women from even applying for the job.
Just imagine the names our first female president will be called if she philandered like Kennedy, cursed or went to the bathroom while being interviewed by the media like Johnson, lied like Nixon, tripped and fell like Ford, had family members like Carter or fell asleep at meetings like Reagan? Oh I can hear the media uproar when Madam, President declares "I did not have sex with that man" like Clinton did, only to have the man (or woman) in question hold up their bikini undershorts with the president's DNA on it. Come on ladies...step up to the plate and...let the games begin...
My kids chide me when they hear me make an ethnic joke. I look at them and shake my head. They would never make it though a season of TV shows from the 1970's like "The Jeffersons" or "All In The Family" or a movie like "Blazing Saddles". They have no idea that without some informal social freedom to provide levity to our slightly different cultural, regional, ethnic norms - we might not have been able to break down many "barriers" the past 40 years. Now I know that humor can be a double edged sword. You can use it to either ease tensions between different people or you can use it to try to belittle someone different from you, by trying to make yourself look superior. I choose the former. I use my humor to build a bridge, start a dialog and make the spoken party laugh. I am not particularly concerned about being politically correct. Loving people, respecting their humanity as equals is not a fad to me. It's just a way of life. We can always joke about life.
This past Monday, as President Obama was sworn in for his second term, I kept reading snippets of news and commentary by Americans stating that we are more divided now than ever before. I'd like to challenge everyone believing that notion to rethink that. Where in the last 100 years was America a completely uniformed country? There are hundreds of book titles that talk about the different Americas within America. There's the North, South, East and West America. There's the White America. There's the Chinese, Black and Hispanic America. There's the men vs women America and the wealthy and the poor America. There's not one single decade the past 100 years in which Americans haven't had some form of division. I can accept that other voices within America are rising and speaking out - using their political freedom and growing numbers that they haven't had in the past. What's wrong with that? This is a democracy, isn't it? Who has been speaking for them before these two recent presidential elections? Either way, the upside is that when our nation is challenged by outside forces - we have the time tested ability to galvanize our resources and unite like no other country in the world - regardless of our differences. We should always appreciate that strength.
Given all of our different interests locally and regionally it's preposterous to think that on a national level we can all be one big happy family every day and on every single issue. Anyone who can claim that we are always together on all issues, must also believe in the Tooth Fairy. Just look at our past presidents. There are people who have loved and hated Kennedy, Johnson, Nixon, Ford, Carter, Reagan, Bush Sr, Clinton, Bush Jr. and now Obama. Not any one of them were loved by 100% of the people, 100% of the time. In different parts of the country and among different ethnic groups, each one of them represented something different to different people. My mother only ever had the pictures of three presidents hanging in her house. They were Kennedy, Carter and Obama (Nope not Clinton). She also loved NYC Mayor Lindsay and later Mayoral candidate Bella Abzug (who lost to Koch). She was only lukewarm with Mayors Koch and Dinkins, and never really warmed up to Giuliani. "He's just too mean."
Yet today, we sit back in reverence of Dr. Martin Luther King's birthday and his role in our American history. His birthday is a national holiday, but few remember the enormous fight it took to get it to become a national holiday during the 1980's (and it's still not recognized in all states). What's even more ironic is that few of us today can even appreciate that during his own political lifetime ('50's - 70's), absent his assassination, he would have NEVER been voted as the President of the United States. We need to take ownership of that reality. I GUESS WE WERE DIVIDED THEN TOO? Imagine that? Generations of born Americans had to protest for their right to vote and have equal rights and were beaten, attacked by dogs, shot at and murdered for pretesting that right just 50 years ago? Haven't we been sending troops to other countries the past 50 years to defend democracy? Then whose democracy was it that we were defending in America back then?
During some of my formative years, I was socially educated by black men who participated in WW II, the Korean and Vietnam wars. Yet all of those men came back home and faced overt and in some cases hidden "institutional" racism. No matter how much they defended "our freedom" overseas, or how close they came to losing their lives as Americans, they returned home and couldn't drink from certain water fountains, eat at certain lunch counters, use certain bathrooms or ride buses up front. Many of them were forced to move into neighborhoods where the infrastructure was already deteriorating around them, or even removed as soon as they arrived. Go research the life work of Mr. Jacob Riis in New York City. His photographs and writing accounts will astound you. Here's another historical fact - people of African decent have fought and died in every war this country has been, starting with Cyprus Attucks in the Boston Massacre - the "first American" to die in the fight for our nation's own freedom from British rule. That goes all the way back from 1770 to our present day in the Gulf War, folks. Who still wants to talk about division in America and proper past representation in the political playing field?
The truth is as much as Dr. King was loved in certain White and African American communities, he was also disliked in some of those same communities and regarded as a troublemaker. The FBI had investigated him and wired tapped him for years. In fact, the director of the FBI at the time, J. Edgar Hoover, had a smear campaign against Dr. King and other Civil Rights leaders for many years. He called them among other names, Communists. Just Google it folks. Ironically, it is the legacy of Dr. King (and other Civil Rights leaders) achievements in the 1950's and '60's that have resonated over time to younger generations, that have allowed others in this country to be given the chance to engage in the political process and be given more of a chance to perhaps even become president.
But let me dial that back a minute. If we want to talk "progressive" and most of us Americans think that we are more progressive than other countries...well let's chew on this for a minute. Since the Declaration of Independence in 1776 (237 years ago) and of the 44 men who have served as the President of the United States...how come we Americans have never had a woman elected as President? And in my lifetime only 2 women as serious vice-presidential candidates? It's rather odd that nearly 50 other countries around the world have had women as leaders of their countries in the past 100 years, yet not America? If we have no prejudices and are progressive as we proclaim - how come we've never have had a American woman seriously considered for the job? I mean not even for one term?
Do we think American women just started reading and becoming intelligent enough to handle the job? Do we think that American women haven't had the capacity to get involved in politics these past 237 years? I completely reject either notion! Sorry to say, but we have had some very brilliant women as Senators, Congresswomen, CEO's, Governors and Cabinet members the past 50 years alone - all of whom have been overlooked for the job. For those who care to look back you'll see that Palin and Ferraro (both as vice-presidential candidates) were not even be the cream of this 50 year crop, yet we've never managed to get the best near the Oval office. Thankfully we have managed to have a number of great First Ladies in the White House the past 100 years to balance things out. However, it's still not quite the same. Perhaps with the new election results this past November, which added additional highly intelligent and politically savvy women to Congress, we'll have more to choose from in 2016?
Perhaps this idea of more inclusion in the political process is the one idea that we can all rally around? Or is it? Ehh...why worry? Two months after she's elected, there will be people in America who oppose her - spewing some hateful words about Madam President anyway. Just take a bipartisan glimpse of the list of vile criticisms attached to every female politician who has stuck her head up above the men within the two major political parties. Most of the comments are nothing to smile or laugh at and are designed to intimidate (via discrediting) some of the very best women from even applying for the job.
Just imagine the names our first female president will be called if she philandered like Kennedy, cursed or went to the bathroom while being interviewed by the media like Johnson, lied like Nixon, tripped and fell like Ford, had family members like Carter or fell asleep at meetings like Reagan? Oh I can hear the media uproar when Madam, President declares "I did not have sex with that man" like Clinton did, only to have the man (or woman) in question hold up their bikini undershorts with the president's DNA on it. Come on ladies...step up to the plate and...let the games begin...
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