fargingbastige's blog

I just feel compelled to make a post regarding the subject above.  It seems sometimes like the more progress we make, the further we slip.  Whether it's Obama-Clinton-McCain, Larry Langford and the City of Birmingham, Bettye Fine Collins and Sheila Smoot, Al Sharpton, Jesse Jackson or David Duke, we cannot seem to get over it all and get along as people.  There's alot of finger pointing about discrimination and reverse discrimination.  Pretty soon we'll have double-super-discrimination.  And it goes on and on.

None of this is unique to the South, the United States or black and white/African-American/Caucasian.  It has always been an issue any place in the world.

Who's a racist?  What does a racist look like?  Is a racist someone who flys the Confederate Battle Flag because there is a long, proud family tradition that traces it roots back to the War Between the States?  Is a racist someone who organizes, implements and conducts a pagent that excludes a certain race because they are promoting their heritage?  I would suggest that it could be both - or it could be neither.  It's up to the individual.

I responded to a post earlier today and I'll now expand upon that.  I had a military assignment a few years ago that allowed me a truly great opportunity to work everyday, side-by-side with the indigenous popluation of that country.  I had interaction daily with members of government, local population and military in that country.  Essentially there were three different ethnic groups from the same country and same religion.  One group, 'A' was the most predominent in terms of population followed by 'B' and finally 'C' as the vast minority.  Each group distrusted the other and claimed the other groups didn't treat them fairly.  As an outsider looking in, it was apparent that there was some evidence to substantiate that claim on all accounts.  Group 'A' thought that 'C' was the lowest forms of life in the country and refused to give them some of the better jobs with more responsibility.  Group 'C' distrusted everything that 'A' did and did everything possible to undermine what 'A' - or 'B' did.  'B' was pretty much in the middle and took stuff from both groups on both ends.  It was an ugly mess.

The interesting thing was that I felt incredibly hypocritical as I tried to get these people to unify against a common evil and trust each other.  Fortunatley the majority of them did not know the details of the struggles in our own country.  Still, for me to stand there and try to get people to get over their differences based on thousands of years of this mindset was tough.  And now, after all these years, we - Americans - are dealing with the same things.

I'd like to think, despite historical evidence, that we can one day get along as Americans and treat everyone equally and fairly.  That must be an incredible naive view, but how truly great could this country be if we could accomplish just that?  I'm not giving up.  I'm committed.