What are we afraid of?

Thirty or so years ago, I served our nation as a United States Marine. I was not the best Marine. I made mistakes, but I was prepared to fight for the entirety of The Constitution. Today, I am perplexed.

I have maintained a low profile regarding many of the varied protests of the past year. I have kept my nose to books, to football, to my health and family. I feel I can keep quiet no longer.

I think most who have read my work would probably be able to deduce that I am a liberal; not as progressive as Elizabeth Warren, and not as centrist as Hillary Clinton. But, the thing is, and this is something I just do not understand, the liberal v. conservative conversation should be about economics. Everything else? That is not being liberal or conservative; it is about imposing moral views.

We are a society based, at the very core, by the phrase ‘we hold these truths to be self-evident… that all men are created equal.’ Yet it is a core which was not even fully believed by its author. We have spent two-hundred-forty years entrenched with the belief that all men are not created equal. As a nation, we fiercely imposed this lack of equality for most of our history.It is this backdrop that brings my voice from the graveyard of books.

We shout, we scream, we fight, for those rights we find critical. We insult and degrade anyone whose opinion differs. We ridicule those who use the very rights I defended as a Marine.

Why? Because we are afraid.

Ask yourself why it is that when someone protests racial discrimination, we don’t actually discuss with them the topic. Instead of what, we discuss how.

The First Amendment is a very powerful tool in our nation. At times, even our Founding Fathers violated this right with Sedition Acts designed to shut up dissenters. So before we get on our high horse, we should recognize that we are following along the shadows of flawed men; men who we should strive to exceed in our own actions.

Let me be specific. When Colin Kaepernick decided to use his rights under The Constitution to voice his disapproval of racial injustice in American society, rather than have the conversation, people ridiculed the method in which he protested. Why? Because to talk about the what rather than the how requires we either admit or deny racial injustice. If we admit the obvious, it will make us feel extremely uncomfortable. So, he gets lambasted for asserting his rights.

We have done the same thing anytime racial injustice has been brought to the forefront. We deflect and avoid. We hide. We blame.

Now, the ultra conservatives, those people who think Donald Trump is some sort of hero, they like to call this ‘white guilt.’ Again, that is just a diversion tactic. It is designed to take attention away from the actual message.

Racial injustice exists in America. Read that again.

Racial injustice exists in America!

What are we doing to solve this problem? Who gives a damn how this topic is brought to our attention? That is a medium. Now it is time to communicate. Now it is time to look for solutions. Stop shaming those people who shatter our illusion that we have to be perfect and that we cannot admit our faults.

Admitting to our faults, admitting our mistakes, making amends, those are signs of virtue, not shame!

Okay, some NFL players decided to use their voices to raise awareness to a problem. Are we going to continue to deny and deflect? Are we going to continue to shame them for their choice to exercise the rights I protected? Or are we going to have a very difficult conversation about how to eliminate racial injustice. Racial injustice has been ingrained in our culture from the very beginning. Abraham Lincoln did something about the injustice; are we going to bury our collective heads in the sand? Or are we going to begin the very difficult conversation?

It really is up to you. Insulting how Kaepernick brought it to our attention will do nothing to resolve the issue.

It is time for dialogue. It is time for the fear of truth to take a backseat to the very values upon which our nation was created. If all men are created equal, why are they not treated equal?