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The list of politicians not being investigated seems about as long as the list of those who are… Never has there been such publicly visible malice between opposing viewpoints. It’s now OK to commit character assassination to win an election. The most upsetting part is that so many of us think nothing of letting an assassin make decisions that directly affect our lives.
Us old folks just shake our heads and hope things will get better. Things are not going to just “get better” and here’s why. Our impressionable children are watching what we and all our peers are doing. Just like they have been raised in a digital world and can manipulate a computer by age two, they are watching how we adults treat one another. In eight years, your 10-year old won’t flinch when a candidate for office who tried cigarettes as a teen has an opponent say that it was really marijuana and then the story morphs into marijuana laced with LSD and then that teen that tried a cigarette way-back-when becomes a crack smoking junky in the eyes of some gotcha news machine.
There are people in my life who are dear to me that are unable to discuss a number of sensitive topics with me these days. It amazes me that specific groups of people have been targeted as “hate groups”. In the minds of people who buy into the kind of thing, no one is capable of doing anything hateful except the people thrown into those groups. I am stunned to see a usually rational person turn red and spout language that would make a sailor blush and deny that they are being hateful.
Right now, while you are not presently arguing with an acquaintance or coworker about a sensitive subject, consider this; a white policeman injures a black man because he used excessive force while apprehending him. Later, someone who witnessed the arrest hides in the parking lot and when that policeman is preparing to go home throws a bottle that strikes him in the head causing serious injuries. Which of those acts was hateful? The problem is that too many people on both sides of this kind of argument believe the behavior they support is justified and right. If we don’t wake up and remember that we are all people who make mistakes now and then, who need to be forgiven and to forgive; future generations will think nothing of killing one another over a simple philosophical disagreement.
