I am going to channel my inner Andy Rooney for a minute (if you're too young to remember Andy, just go to youtube and search his name: you can thank me later) and attempt to offer up a no-nonsense op-ed, sans emotion and conjecture. I realize that is out of the ordinary for me, but don't call 9-1-1 just yet--I am certain I'll be back to my old self before you can say neo-Nazi.
I used to fall victim to the "here comes the next Civil War" rhetoric espoused by anyone not paying attention to the nation as a whole. The media has always attempted to drive a wedge between Americans--for different reasons, and some that are more speculation than hardened fact--mostly because derision and division drive ratings, and with ratings come corporate sponsorships, and with sponsorships come a flood of money. You guessed it, a river of dead presidents making a news corporation rich while the rest of us agonize and wallow in our own uneducated emotional fragilities.
It is pretty safe to say that less one percent of the population identifies, on any scale, with a particular hate group. By "identify" I mean, they are card carrying members of the KKK, some neo-Nazi skinhead group, BLM, antifa, etc. Most likely, there are a higher percentage of sympathizers (my estimates link between three and five percent of our population) who support these groups. If that is true, why do we allow ourselves to engage in the ridiculousness that seems to consume our social media accounts?
Sure, I'm a political junkie with opinions as strong as the next person, but my opinion(s) is/are mine, not someone else's. I have zero issue engaging someone in debate, and at least try to keep it civil. Yes, yes, I've lost my cool on several occasions, but I TRY my best to keep emotion out of it and stick to the facts as I know and understand them. My approach is often seen as confrontational or condescending; and perhaps this is sometimes true. More often, I believe, the person with the opposing point of view is emotionally charged and elects to either a.) resort to making the issue personal, or b.) slamming the proverbial victim card on the table because they feel as though I've said something offensive.
Back to the intent of this post--every day I trudge into work and stand shoulder-to-shoulder with black, white, Asian, and Hispanic co-workers. We laugh and carry on, protected from the outside world by the walls surrounding us, working together with common goals and interests. No one worries about a Klan rally, a Black Panther Party, or an MS13 gang shooting. We just work and try to make thins as fun as possible. Sure, we have disagreements about how to get things done, and we make fun of each other for the stupid things we say or do, but we are like a big family.
If that is the case for approximately five hundred people in a single location, I suspect the rest of us work and get along with those different (in many ways) than us on a regular basis. Why get worked up over a media intent on driving ratings by driving a wedge between us? Two days ago, we were talking about monuments, today we're back to Muslims killing people in Europe. Where did the outrage go? I'll tell you where it went--to the next story!
Y'all have a lovely weekend and enjoy yourselves. If you feel yourself offended by anything I've written here, then I appreciate you allowing me to live in your head rent free. :)
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