Remebering to Remeber

I remember the undeclared Korean War.

I remember Americas young dying in Vietnam, their death toll plastered nightly on the six O’clock news.

I remember when the national guard of the United States of America fired bullets into a crowd of students protesting an undeclared war in Asia.

I remember parades of people wearing hardhats bosting American flag decals, chanting “love it or leave it.” 

I remember when they found the bodies of the Civil Rights voting advocates in a hillside in Mississippi.

I remember the 16^th Street bombing that killed four young girls in the basement of a church.

I remember the states effort to stop integration.

I remember the bus boycott, the lunch counter sit ins, the farm workers strike.

I remember the Edmond Pettis Bridge, Bloody Sunday.

I remember the Birmingham jail letters; the I have a dream speech.

I remember the Bay of Pigs. The invasion of a country in an attempt to overthrow a government that our country feared because it was aligned with Russia and the communist movement around the globe that threatened democracy.

I remember John Kennedy being assassinated.

I remember Lee Harvey Oswald being assassinated.

I remember Martin Luther King Jr. being assassinated.

I remember Robert Kennedy being assassinated.

I remember the Berlin Wall coming down. 

I remember the Soviet Union collapsing.

I remember the Watergate breakin.

I remember a President resigning.

I remember the convoy of migrants.

I remember the children in cages.

I remember all those who died because of the color of their skin.

I remember the impeachments, the exposed corruption, the pardons.

I remember the attack on the capital, the attempted coup, the insurrection to overthrow an election. 

I remember the invasion of Ukraine and the deaths of thousands because of the arrogant psychosis of one autocrat and those that enabled him.

I remember that the more we believe things have change, the more they have remained the same.

We are presently involved in societal disputes over voting rights, sexual orientation, books, education, migration, policing, anything, and everything, that pits us against one another, in an effort to keep the distractions impacting our unsatisfied and angry society, perpetually exaggerated.

Violence becomes the reaction of frustration. We cannot understand how others can see, hear, experience the same event, listen to the same evidence, feel the provocation imbued in a speech or professed doctrine, and react differently than we do.

If there is one truth, then how can the tenants of it be disputed, debated, not accepted for what they are? We tend to forget we are human beings with varied backgrounds, advantages, disadvantages, histories, that although claiming to be painted with the same brush, can’t accept the picture we are left with.

The forces that shape our perceptions, beliefs, actions, are powerful reminders that although we share a common humanity, we do not share similar life experiences that shape, not only our outlook on life, but the lives of others.

For there to be a right, does there have to be a wrong? Can good exist without evil? Can God exist without a devil? We are constantly asked to answer questions we are not prepared to answer, as we are too busy living to devote time to the philosophies of life. We are by our very nature, attempting to survive within the parameters of conceptualized justice which is transformed by experience into a mode of either contrition or retribution, in an attempt to preserve what we believe to be the truth.

I remember the Twin Towers in New York City collapsing in moral outrage; our collective indignation towards those who had the audacity to challenge our superiority on the world stage. And yet we personally challenge others hopes, dreams, futures, because we perceive them to be an attack on us personally as well as collectively.

Our first instinct is retribution, not an attempt to understand what caused the afront to our abstract reality. We are left with the imperative to seek a justice we are not prepared to understand, as it has taken a back seat to self-interest, preservation. Our first impulse is to survive, protect, not only ourselves, but those nearest us. It is an inherent principle of being human.

Reactions to attack, stress, challenge, are first considered personal, as they cause us to revert to instinct which is our will to survive. Our perception of people and events as an attach on our beliefs challenges our ability to see the picture we live, from the perspective of others. We are forced to endure the challenge believing it is an attach on our beliefs, principles, and yet we have no evidence that is the case.

Throughout history, the power of individuals over others has been explored through violence, physical as well as psychological. Power is the double-edged sword used for good, bad, right, wrong, but only holds that power to choose, when individuals give up individual authority to another to use as they will, in the acquisition of choice to expand a perspective.

Because of the precarious nature of humans we allow ourselves to be swayed by perspectives that encompass an idealism that we instinctual recognize as beneficial, and give in to its pervasive nature without understanding the ramifications it may have on other individuals. 

No one enjoys being accosted, verbally or physically, and yet we allow ourselves to condone these actions because we have been told it is necessary if we are to maintain our vision of a picture of the world we need to exist, if we are to survive.

Dissatisfaction with life is a common aliment suffered by anyone who has lived.  Our wishes are rarely satisfied. Wishes, by their very nature, are beyond the expectations of reality and yet we persist in finding ways to blame that dissatisfaction on an ideology or person. We cannot be dissatisfied with ourselves because we then must acknowledge, that when we look at the picture life has painted, and can’t find ourselves in, there must be someone who has displaced us.

Fear of what we are not, is more powerful than what we are. Only we are capable of changing the perception of ourselves and others. If we continue to live under the survivalist umbrella of fear and suspicion, we will continue to react as though life is an attack on us personally.

We have been murdering each other for centuries because we have been trained to believe those in power have the answers. It is time, and has been time, that we begin to think for ourselves, to realize the perception of what we consider justice, depends on which side you are on.