Diversity. Equity. Inclusion. Three simple words that are so triggering for the oppressors, the ignorant, and those who choose to put their head in the sand.
Just the mere mention of those words can send Fox viewers, school boards, parents, white supremacists, fascists, non-educated, and others into a tizzy. People who don’t even know the meaning of these words, or are afraid of the context of these words, are working overtime to ignore and suppress the dark side of our history.
Something happened this week that has caused some anguish, but mostly anger, involving those three powerful words. It was an act of political expediency and from my personal perspective cowardice. My apologies that I can’t provide details, but the actions of others have me wondering if we’ve crossed the tipping point and are sliding into a new “dark age,” and we all know what happened during the last dark age of history.
What I don’t understand is the denial of history. Why we as a nation are afraid to acknowledge how our forefathers, and how even in modern times, our country has, and is working actively to slow diversity, deny equity, and fight inclusion in society from the board room to the classroom?
Why are learned people and the U.S. oligarchs working to deny the truth rather than choose to do better now? Are they so far removed from the common folks, the non-99%, they feel we should all just eat cake?
How does one with money and power live each day being okay with the status quo—Trumpists, Republicans, and yes, even Democrats? Do they live in such the bubble, with drivers, private planes, privilege of office, mansions, and enough wealth to never want, as to not truly know (or care) what is happening around them?
Are they so arrogant to believe history, where the rich and powerful are always eventually held accountable, will not repeat itself? Are they so insulated to believe it can’t happen here, to them?
Thankfully we live in a better civil society where one doesn’t have to fear losing their head, but at some point the masses will grow so angry to the point of having nothing to lose. It is this point I worry the most.
Will those suffering the most finally see they have more things in common and realize they’ve been played by the rich and powerful? Will they band together to form a formidable voting block and exercise that right? Will they vote as one to kick out those giving the power to the oligarchs? Will they vote as one to those who not only pledge, but have shown their commitment to lifting the common person up through showing the value and power of diversity, equity, and inclusion for all?
Or, will we go down the path being forged by Trumplicans? A path of the Nazis where certain classes of people, the “unpure,” the “animals,” are treated violently and without mercy by the angry masses. Those who allow their anger to be channeled by people who has no one’s best interest at heart other than their own? Will there be a modern version of civil war? Will there be a trampling and destruction of the Constitution, democracy, and the Republic?
Have we reached the point, as someone I know stated earlier today, where objective truth is dead? Where one can see with one’s eyes a violent insurrectionist attack on the Capitol, yet believe it to be a peaceful demonstration because someone says it was such? Where one is told mask-mandates are bad, even though the science says otherwise (and the same for vaccines), thus causing more deaths than necessary. Where one is told an election was rigged for the presidential election, but all down ballot elections were fine, and believe it? Where a self-professed billionaire must continually ask others for money, although the while saying how rich he is, and they send it?
If we haven’t passed the point, we are most definitely teetering on the edge. Many of us keep saying the 2024 election will be a defining moment for our country (just as the 2020 and 2022 elections were mandates for democracy).
But 2024 is different.
Project 2025, the Supreme Court and other federal judges, basic civil rights, and how our huddled masses will be treated, makes it different.
One candidate is imperfect, but does truly believe in democracy and the betterment of the American people. One candidate is imperfect, but truly believes he himself should be a dictator, above the law, where everyone serves at, and for, his pleasure regardless of who gets hurt in the process.
For me, it always comes back to this question, in what kind of country, what societal norms, do I want my children, grandchildren, and so on and so forth to live in. One of free choice, or of forced choice.
Which do you choose?
Personal Reflections of a Middle-Aged Man 