[Begun in December 2014]
We fear a lot of things, both rationally and irrationally.
I had a fear as a kid (in the 1970s) that someone was hiding behind the shower curtain while I was in the commode, and that that person was a killer with a knife.
It only happened a few times when there actually was a person hiding there; it was always an innocuous friend or family member, never a surreptitious fiend or neighborhood psychopath. And truth be told, it was usually me. Spooking myself was a part time habit.
But there are real threats in this world, for sure. When I moved into my current house a few years ago in the 21st century, the town we had moved to was a little bit more urban than some of the suburban places (or bases) I had been the previous few years. One warm night I heard what sounded like gun shots to my "confirmation bias", my own expectations of what I might be exposed to in my new neighborhood made me think something really wrong had occurred. Crime. Bad surroundings, worse than previous ones. But now I don't think those things happened. Rather, they were probably fireworks exploding out of season. I have heard similar pops and bangs since. Now I think of my community as safer and do not suspect gunfire but rather childish longings for little explosions of Chinese-made pyrotechnics.
Recently a disturbed youth went into a historic black church in Charleston, South Carolina and shot and killed 9 members of the African Methodist Episcopal faith because of their race.
This young man, deranged, misguided, or insane, had issues against black people and cited the case of Trayvon Martin and George Zimmerman from a couple years back as an example of racial strife.
Unfortunately the 21st century Internet can feed people alleged "facts" that they want to believe, and can use those biased, distorted, or inaccurate truthes to act out on.
This has been true in the past since time immemorial, through oral legends and histories, then recorded documents and then the printing press making writings ubiquitous.
Human history is replete with examples of ideas becoming publicized and popular, many of which were wrong, and then subsequently those ideas become deadly.
Communism, nationalism, fascism, extreme militarism, all types of totalitarianism has gravely affected our countries throughout the centuries.
Some consider extremist religious causes as the bane of our current world. Perhaps. The middle East, Africa and parts of Asia have serious conflicts due to some of those issues.
People from all the world are threatened by these military and terrorist threats; some are attracted to them.
Individuals like the criminal in South Carolina and bigger groups of terrorists and other bigger military and social institutions continue to exist, despite our modern day knowledge of the mistakes of the present and the past.
Police try to do what is right usually, but mistakes are made and many people distrust them.
But in some places the police are the bullies, and the regular population is cowed and even abused.
Some entire governments are based on this premise. Not based on racism, per se, but in positions of power and control.
We all do our parts to stop the bullies, at the lowest levels up to the biggest powers on the earth.
Fear and Racism: Alive and Rampant in 2015
We fear a lot of things, both rationally and irrationally.
I had a fear as a kid (in the 1970s) that someone was hiding behind the shower curtain while I was in the commode, and that that person was a killer with a knife.
It only happened a few times when there actually was a person hiding there; it was always an innocuous friend or family member, never a surreptitious fiend or neighborhood psychopath. And truth be told, it was usually me. Spooking myself was a part time habit.
But there are real threats in this world, for sure. When I moved into my current house a few years ago in the 21st century, the town we had moved to was a little bit more urban than some of the suburban places (or bases) I had been the previous few years. One warm night I heard what sounded like gun shots to my "confirmation bias", my own expectations of what I might be exposed to in my new neighborhood made me think something really wrong had occurred. Crime. Bad surroundings, worse than previous ones. But now I don't think those things happened. Rather, they were probably fireworks exploding out of season. I have heard similar pops and bangs since. Now I think of my community as safer and do not suspect gunfire but rather childish longings for little explosions of Chinese-made pyrotechnics.
Recently a disturbed youth went into a historic black church in Charleston, South Carolina and shot and killed 9 members of the African Methodist Episcopal faith because of their race.
This young man, deranged, misguided, or insane, had issues against black people and cited the case of Trayvon Martin and George Zimmerman from a couple years back as an example of racial strife.
Unfortunately the 21st century Internet can feed people alleged "facts" that they want to believe, and can use those biased, distorted, or inaccurate truthes to act out on.
This has been true in the past since time immemorial, through oral legends and histories, then recorded documents and then the printing press making writings ubiquitous.
Human history is replete with examples of ideas becoming publicized and popular, many of which were wrong, and then subsequently those ideas become deadly.
Communism, nationalism, fascism, extreme militarism, all types of totalitarianism has gravely affected our countries throughout the centuries.
Some consider extremist religious causes as the bane of our current world. Perhaps. The middle East, Africa and parts of Asia have serious conflicts due to some of those issues.
People from all the world are threatened by these military and terrorist threats; some are attracted to them.
Individuals like the criminal in South Carolina and bigger groups of terrorists and other bigger military and social institutions continue to exist, despite our modern day knowledge of the mistakes of the present and the past.
Police try to do what is right usually, but mistakes are made and many people distrust them.
But in some places the police are the bullies, and the regular population is cowed and even abused.
Some entire governments are based on this premise. Not based on racism, per se, but in positions of power and control.
We all do our parts to stop the bullies, at the lowest levels up to the biggest powers on the earth.
