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Personal Musings – The Power of Love
This would have to be one of the most difficult blog/video posts I have produced in over a decade. After seeing everything that has transpired around the world over the last few weeks, I felt compelled to put my thoughts down on the issue of racism, equality and the sanctity of life.
Compelled you may ask? Yes, compelled. I’m a firm believer that there is something amoral when men and women of good conscience remain silent in times like this. For that reason, I have decided to share with you my thoughts via the medium of my blog.
I do apologize that the video is a little longer than normal, but I must admit that I found myself struggling to articulate some of my emotions as I came to grips with the shocking reality that has befallen us.
You see, I have a dream. That dream is that humanity puts aside the bigotry, animosity and hate and embraces the soul defining power that is love. The bonds of love that unshakably ties each of us together in our humanity is far stronger than any other force that may be brought to bear against it.
I hope you have a great weekend.
Michael
Comments
I'm pretty rabidly non-political, in that I believe the entire system as we know it (at least here in the US, I can't really speak from experience on any other country's systems) is broken and can't be repaired with the very system that is so broken any more than you can fix a house after it's been blown down by a hurricane, using the shattered pieces of that house. That being said...
It's my opinion that either all lives matter, or no lives matter. There is no in-between. And I would go further to suggest that in fact, in a cosmic sense, no lives matter. If we talk about lives mattering, we have to know "to whom do these lives matter?" Probably every life matters to someone, somewhere, somehow. But every life can't matter to every person. That just isn't possible given the number of lives on the planet at the moment. And our lives certainly don't matter to the Universe as a whole, as we're nothing more than a momentary blip on the cosmic radar.
But as far as the racism and "equality" stuff goes... first of all this current crop of "activists" or whatever they want to be known as, don't want equality. They want superiority, plain & simple. They want "fair" so long as it serves them more. They are the worst racists around currently, because they make absolutely everything about the color of skin. If someone is "mixed race" in fact and has fair skin, they will often be discounted as "not really black" etc. Which IMO is pathetic.
Either we as a species evolve to a point of meritocracy, where the color of any individual's skin has simply no place in the conversation whatsoever, or we will be doomed to never ending cycles of racist behaviors like we are seeing now. It will go back & forth between who's instigating... one time it'll be blacks, another time it'll be whites, and round & round & round we go. But it will never stop as long as people continue to make things about skin color.
I love how Morgan Freeman addressed this topic on 60 minutes over a decade ago:
Interviewer: "How are we gonna get rid of racism until..."
Freeman: "Stop talking about it."
And that's the mic drop moment.
Racism exists because we humans keep it going. Xenophobia (which is really what we're talking about since we're all actually the same race anyway) has been around since the dawn of humanity, and isn't likely to go away any time soon. "Us vs. Them" thinking is deeply rooted in our DNA and this is just an outgrowth of that - albeit a particularly nasty one.
But Meritocracy is not "fair" since by definition those who are empirically "better" at something will rise to the top. And because of this, the younger generations don't want it since it would mean they have to excel when they've been brought up to believe in "participation trophies" and that "everyone's a winner" and whatnot.
Personally I expect this "movement" to run out of steam in the somewhat near future, and things will just go back to what they have always been. Sadly, there is no talk of "color blindness". We're actually supposed to be much more aware of "color" than ever before!
I don't think the song People Are People by Depeche Mode has ever been more applicable since it was written:
Boy that was a long post that will probably end up rubbing someone the wrong way. Hey this is the internet after all... it would be like a day without sunshine!
Shine on!
I agree, we need to stop speaking about colour and view everyone with compassion in our heart as fellow human beings. That being said, the BLM movement is highlighting the fact that there is a section of the community that is in pain. What can be done about this? I believe we need to display love towards those that are hurting. IMHO, the group that decides to hijack BLM for political purposes is abominable.
I think we need to continue to discuss race but in a respectful manner that rejoices in our differences rather than use the "race card" as a method of manipulation. That being said, we cannot ignore that there are parts of the community that are hurting and it is of no coincidence that they happen to be people of colour.
I really love this content! Love is everything thank you so much, Michael, for this more of Saturday musing and more power to you, God bless you
Best regards,
Oteph
Do yourself a favour -
https://www.goodhousekeeping.com/life/a32745051/what-black-lives-matter-means/
That's a really interesting article....many thanks for the link.
My point is that "All life matters" BUT we must not use this as a slogan to ignore the fact that some members of our global community (ie. people of colour with BLM) are suffering more than others. We also don't want to get into a slanging match about who is suffering more. The challenge is to always view people as precious and valuable human beings and rejoice in each persons unique ethnicity.
To me, the issue is suffering not skin colour. There is a segment of our nations population that is suffering, many of them happen to be people of colour....let's embrace that community and recognize the cry from their heart that BLM. It really is a cry and one that should be heeded.
Another challenge I have is that to single a race out is in itself racist. This actually means BLM is racist....which is a crazy thought! This is why my thinking lead me in the direction of MLK, where he embraced all people through love, regardless of race.
The problem with looking at proportions where more people of colour are proportionally killed the non-colours is that it misses the entire point. The point is that not just faceless statistic are killed. John, Mary and Fred lost their lives. These are real people with real families and real loved ones that will mourn their passing forever. In addition, are more people of colour killed by police because more of them are criminals? If this is the case then the question has to be asked, "Why are there more criminals?" (I'm not saying there are more btw). Could it be that more people of colour are in poverty because of a lack of opportunity and this forces them into crime just to survive?
This is a big question that I don't know the answer for and I find myself wanting to do the only thing I know how to do, and that is show compassion and love towards a community that is hurting. For this reason, we must uphold BLM not as a political symbol but as a community that is in pain.
Wow....didn't mean to write this much....