A Sad State of Affairs

Because of this class, I have spent more time watching the news and thinking about the current state of affairs in our country. There were several news stories this week that were disturbing for various reasons. The first one involved a television actor and an alleged attack that took place in Chicago. The actor, Jussie Smollett, claimed that two men attacked him, shouted racist and homophobic slurs at him and tied a rope around his neck. My first reaction was that the attack was disgusting and that hopefully, the perpetrators whould be brought to justice quickly. After the story played out over several days it now appears as if the whole incident was staged in an effort by the actor to gain a more lucrative contractual arrangement with his current employer. What bothers me about this story is that this type of attack actually happens to real people in our cities all the time. The hate that is faced by everyday people is real and has consequences. By his actions, Smollett belittled these victims and now made their stories less believable and subject to question. Unfortunately, these people don’t have the platform to fight back that Smollett had to fake the story. The hate and scars of the words and attacks will live with the real victims for the rest of their lives. I thought that it must be horrible that people are targeted and/or attacked over who they love or how they love. Hopefully, Smollett gets the help he needs. This is a sad story all around.

Another story this week involved the government recently revealing that 245 children were separated from their parents at the southern border of the United States since the current administration ended their “Zero Tolerance” policy last June. I have watched this story over the last year and heard arguments for and against this policy. I watched on television as a commentator said that the parents broke the law and asked “what criminals get to take their children to jail with them?” I watched the pictures of children being put in cages and warehoused. For the first time in my life it made me ashamed of my country. I once travelled to Mexico to build houses for people living along the railroad tracks near Tecate. I met the families and children there who were just trying to survive. Like any of us, they just wanted a better life for themselves and their children. I met a young boy named “Moses” who drew me a picture on a block of wood. The picture was of him and his family in their new home with big smiles on their faces. I still have that block of wood. I am not really sure how we have come to a point in our history where a large part of the citizens of the United States are accepting of children being put in cages. I know we are better than this.

Another story involved a Coast Guard officer who was arrested this week after it was discovered that he had a cache of weapons and had prepared a list of prominent democratic politicians and journalists from NBC and MSNBC he wanted to murder. He was planning to eliminate people based on their political beliefs. Evidently, he thought silencing voices that he disagreed with would somehow help his “cause.” This was covered extensively in the news; however, the President hadn’t commented on the matter as of Friday.

I also read a story this week about a couple with two children who were killed in a motorcycle accident. The two children, a boy and a girl, were sent to live with their grandparents who had financial difficulties. Before he died, the father had been restoring a classic car in order to give it to his son on his 18th birthday. The Grandparents made the difficult decision to auction off the car in order to raise funds to care for the children. The first person who bought the car auctioned it off immediately and gave the proceeds to the family. The second person did the same thing. The third person gave the car back to the family. In all, $100,000 was raised for the children and the car was given to the young boy who lost his parents. It was good to see that there are still people in the world who care and try and help. Unfortunately, with all the hate in the news every day, stories like this are often overlooked.

The point of this writing is that we as a country can choose who we are, and who we want to be. We can control this. The public outrage is what ended the barbaric zero tolerance policy in the first place. There seems to be so much hate in the world. The disagreements of the past are now pitched battles with no compromise. Politics has become a zero-sum game. Unfortunately, this type of arrangement has consequences like children in cages and violent extremists. All that being said, the story of the 2 children and their grandparents reminds me that in our communities we are better and more connected than it appears. I know, based on personal experience, that this is truly the case. It is important that all of us are the catalyst to bring out the best we can be, and do all in our power to defeat the hate that seems to be growing. It is up to all of us to choose our future and the future of our country.