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Full-contact democracy
26 January 2010
A while back, JP McDaniel wrote on these pages http://mjohnson2.com/Jonathan-McDaniel/To-the-oppressed.html of his shame over centuries of slavery, oppression, religious wars and conquests, racism and all forms of prejudice. He is basically apologizing for the actions of his direct ancestors and the burden of his cultural inheritance, going back centuries.
I make no such apologies, and wonder why people feel compelled to do so. My direct ancestors, going back through all four grandparents, were poor to middle class laborers and farmers. They came to America well after slavery was abolished, and it's an easy bet that their families were never sufficiently prosperous to have owned slaves, on either side of the Atlantic. It's also an easy bet that none were warriors of conquest, unless drafted in Medieval times by the lord of the manor they lived under.
Well, one of my ancestral lines leads back to Sweden, so it is possible that there might be a Viking or two back there somewhere, and although that would be cool indeed, I really doubt it. In any case, my great-grand parents, who first immigrated to the US, came here to be cheap labor in America's factories and other big-city jobs. They may have brought with them their European prejudices, but they embraced America, it's ideals and dreams, and worked hard to make a better life for their families.
Along the way, they embraced American culture, with it's own set of prejudices, and they experienced first hand the criticism and prejudices aimed at them; “dago,” “wop,” “kraut” and “mick” to name a few of the kinder epithets. That they were strongly influenced by their time and place, that they made their own small contributions, positive and negative, to their local and national cultural milieu is nothing deserving of my shame.
Unlike JP, I accept no personal blame for past history, for conquest in the name of religion, for the oppressions and prejudices of eons past.
But I think perhaps we share a common quest. “What can I do?” is the question he ultimately asks in his essay. “What can I do?” Too many people have abdicated their personal responsibility to good citizenship, good stewardship, good service to strangers as well as to friends. What I can do, what I am doing on these pages and elsewhere on the web, is open an honest straightforward conversation about the issues facing this country today, without the hype, without the name calling, without the empty projections, misdirection and diversions.
I grew up during the Civil Rights movement of the 60's. I watched on television as Cicero, IL, cops used fire-hoses on peaceful demonstrators, took part in peace rallies, mourned the death of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., celebrated the first Earth Day.
The history of the US is a long history of expanding recognition of human rights, in fits and starts, and not without setbacks, but expanding nevertheless. Freedom of thought, religion, speech, movement, and association are deeply ingrained American values, that to this day are not as fully embraced by any other country. I think it's time we remember our true core values, and act accordingly. Care to join? Democracy is a full contact sport, dear readers. I urge you all to join in.
Frank Brichetto
www.thefrankdebate.com
ftblogman@gmail.com
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