Think critically and trump intolerance

Erik the Read

“When fascism comes to America, it will come wrapped in the flag and carrying a cross.”

– Sinclair Lewis

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I’ve often said that growing up in the Washington D.C. area made me critically aware of politics.

I ran screaming from northern Virginia when I was 17 and fled to the Rocky Mountain west, but until that point my local news was also often national news.

For my own sanity I have largely shied away from writing about politics, especially on social media. My induction into journalism writing for our small town newspaper still hasn’t broken me of the general view that I should keep my political opinions out of the melee that is Facebook and other such outlets of personal views and I am still a firm believer in the freedom of speech.

A couple of events that happened while on vacation to introduce my baby girl to relatives that have not made it to Wyoming led me to the decision to speak out on a few of my ideals on political and religious freedoms.

The first event was a post on Facebook by a married couple in my family that had a Photoshopped picture of our standing president’s face superimposed on the head of Osama bin Laden, a man killed by U.S. armed forces on Obama’s watch. The meme on the photo was, “The world’s most wanted terrorist – Obama bin Lying.”

Based on what I have observed in our current political environment, especially in the ultra-conservative, or more aptly, ultra-right-wing folks out there, some of those reading this may think this is funny. That’s your right, and I have my thoughts too.

My response to that post, after taking the time to make sure my feelings were strong enough to publicly disagree with family and that I was not just being reactionary after a long day of travel was, in part, “This has to be one of the most ignorant, racist, uneducated, Fox News brainwashed and un-American posts I have seen.”

I went on to point out that inferring Obama is anything other than an American and Christian has been resoundingly defeated. It also should be noted that whatever religion the president finds his faith in is completely irrelevant.

What I find un-American is the veracity and level of disrespect for the president of the U.S., especially so, because it is based in well-proven lies.

This brings me to the point of encouraging people to think critically before they buy in to information they have seen on the internet and from disreputable news sources.

As the old adage goes, “If it looks too good to be true, it probably is.” In the case of purported news, I encourage you to check the facts for yourself before you start spreading intentionally hate- filled messages to all of your friends on social media.

The second thing that happened while I was visiting family last week was an incident at a Donald Trump rally in Birmingham, Ala. CNN reported that a black protester shouting, “black lives matter” was beaten by at least six white attendees at the rally and was reportedly even punched and kicked on the ground as he was held down by security. Trump apparently yelled, “Get him the hell out of here,” as the incident began.

The Trump campaign manager reportedly said the campaign does not condone that type of activity, but I have not been able to find any evidence that Trump himself has made any statements against the actions of his supporters. In fact, he said on Sunday that “maybe he should have been roughed up.”

The incident in Birmingham concerns me for a couple of reasons. First, it reminds me of historical events that have led to race riots. One of my pet peeves as a former archaeologist is that we seem to be a society with a large percentage of the population that has a loss of long-term memory.

As has been pointed out by a number of folks, our nation was founded on the Christian principles of inclusion rather than exclusion and religious freedom rather than intolerance. Keep in mind the pilgrims were refugees fleeing religious persecution.

The ideas that have been bandied about for monitoring mosques, religious identification cards, denial of immigration for certain religions and countries of origin, and intelligence databases targeted on certain faiths hearken back to dark times in our history. I abhor references to Nazi Germany because, generally, they are cliché and trite.

However, those of the Jewish faith, were made to wear badges identifying their religious preference, monitored by the Nazi regime and eventually many millions of Jews were shipped to camps and, according to the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, only a small percentage of those prisoners survived.

In 1988, President Reagan signed the Civil Liberties Act which formally apologized to the Japanese Americans we interred without any due process during WWII. Not a single Japanese American interred was ever found guilty of an act against the United States.

I’m tired of this conversation, I’m weary of repeating mistakes we have already made and I am exhausted by our current political environment in which racism and religious intolerance has become casual and blatant.

I’ll get off my soapbox now and try to find some cute human interest story to take my mind off where we are heading as a country.

 

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