It's been over a week now since the protest-turned-riot at the Capitol Building in Washington DC. I have spent the last week trying to digest what occurred. I've read and watched the coverage and opinions of several media outlets. I've read the many opinions of social media. I've tried to look at what happened from as many angles and sides as I could to better understand what happened, how it happened, and how we came to this point as a country.
The inauguration of the 46th President of the United States will occur this coming Wednesday. This is not just a special event for US Citizens. It is a special and sacred event for the world, because the United States is the symbol of freedom, democracy, and peaceful transition of power. Many of my ancestors helped to settle and build this great country. My blood is as American as any person of Western European descent could possibly be. I am proud of that. I thank God often that I was blessed to be born and raised in this beautiful country.
That is why what happened caused me such heartache. I love this country. I love what it stands for. It breaks my heart to see the violence and hatred that has engulfed our country. What I witnessed this past year-the injustices of racism, cities burning, the ugliness of the election, the siege of our Capitol Building, and the threat of violence this coming Wednesday deeply trouble my soul. The Capitol is being lined with razor wire. There are more military forces being deployed there than are in Syria, Afghanistan, and Iraq COMBINED. The governor of Utah has declared a state of emergency due to the threat of violence at our state capitol building this coming weekend and has put the National Guard on alert to be deployed. My boss has told us that she may have us work from home on Wednesday out of caution due to our work place being so close to the state capitol building.
Over the past few months I have witnessed things that I never thought possible for our country. They're things I experienced when I was in the Philippines during a major national election. I remember when I saw those things happening there feeling a sense of gratitude and even pride that this was not something we had worry about in the United States. I truly believed and felt a sense of security that our country would never experience the things I witnessed there.
It devastates me that only 14 years later we are experiencing many of those exact things.
What has happened to our country?
What has happened to make us hate our fellow Americans?
How is it that we have allowed extremism to gain so much power and influence?
Who is to blame for this downward spiral?
These are questions I have been asking myself for the last few months, and the past week have only brought them into greater focus. I can only come up with one answer.
WE are what's happened to our country.
WE are what's happened to make us hate each other.
WE are how extremism has gained such a foothold.
WE ARE TO BLAME.
When I say "we" I'm not talking about Republicans, Democrats, politicians, big tech, media, social media, or any other group, organization, community, individual or any other power that may be.
I'm talking about every single American Citizen. Every single one of us who has contributed to the hatred, violence, intolerance, extremism, and divisiveness is to blame. Anyone who has called someone a name, insulted their intelligence, questioned their sanity, attacked their character, marginalized them, tried to silence them, told others that if they believe a certain way or support a certain person that they are no longer welcome in our home or life, claimed someone on the other side to be evil, or stated anything that has cultivated hatred, intolerance, divisiveness, or anything similar.
That means me.
That means you.
I have watched people whom I care for and love call for love and tolerance and then turn and spew out the most vicious, hate-filled words. I have seen political leaders, media, and many others with influence from all sides do the same thing.
I have come to detest social media. I have found myself struggling to reconcile what I see and how I feel about others in person versus how they act online. I have significantly lessened my presence on social media, because it's become more difficult to make the separation between the person and their posts and comments.
I myself have fallen for the trap in the past. I am embarrassed and horrified to think I did or said something that may have contributed to the pit of insanity our country has found itself in. I am deeply saddened I let myself fall into those traps.
We are losing the ability to live with and love those of differing viewpoints and ideologies. We've developed a mindset of "us versus them" and "either you're with me or against me." Our politics have become that of pointing the finger at the other party and publicizing their faults while turning a blind eye or even flat out justifying the wrongful actions of our own. We have come to a place where "the ends justify the means." We claim the higher moral ground all while committing the same acts of hatred against those we claim to be better than.
We call for peace, love, understanding, healing, but what we really mean is that we want the other side to concede or be "canceled."
We call for the end of violence but justify it if it's committed by those we align with.
We call for unity, but we really mean we want the other side to give up their causes and join ours.
We call for love, but we dehumanize those who believe differently than ourselves.
And this doesn't just apply to political parties or ideologies. We see the same thing happen in other areas. We have created a society of extreme division. A society of tribalism. A culture of shaming and dehumanizing those who do and act differently.
This is how every oppressing civilization has operated, and it ultimately led to their undoing. They begin by creating division and dehumanizing another group. Then begins the crusades for eugenics, ethnic cleansing, religious purity, and holocausts. We must not permit the dehumanization of ANY group. If we do we are destined to follow a path that has been repeated too often in our history. We are better than this. We must be better than this.
And every single one of us is to blame for this whether by commission or omission. If we want to find true healing and unity we MUST break the cycle of hatred. We MUST put into practice Christ's teachings of love, forgiveness, tolerance, and loving those we don't agree with.
The cycle we have found ourselves in is not irreversible. It can be broken. It must be broken. However, we can't just sit here and say to ourselves 'I will when they do' or 'You first!' or 'But they started it!', because we ALL started it. We all got our country in this mess. It's going to take all of us to get out of it. We have to stop seeing each other has enemies and start seeing each other as fellow Americans, brothers and sisters. I genuinely believe that people from all political parties wake up in the morning with the intent to do good.
We need to remember who the real enemy is. It isn't a certain group of people. It is he who sews hatred and lies. He wants nothing more than to see us destroy ourselves. Let's not give him that pleasure!
Comments
Post a Comment