An Uneasy And Fearful Society – A Comment By Two Sides To A Story
Posted by Xena
In response to “Silence and Shame after Charleston,” written by Padre Steve’s World that I reblogged, Two Sides To A Story commented. It is a profound comment. She gave me permission to post it separately.
Written by Two Sides To A Story
Heartbreaking subject. But despite public figures avoiding the topic in order to not offend supporters, there’s still lots of fertile discussion online in blogs like yours and in social media. And there’s plenty of cyber-fistfights and name-slinging too, so proceed with caution!
The people that disturb me as much as outright racists are a surprising number of people who think they’re not racist but deny that there’s a problem any more – they’re “sick of racism” and so they think never mentioning race fixes the situation despite the facts. Basically they seem invested in denying that white privilege exists in spite of how challenging white lives are, and that a great deal of racism is embedded in our institutions and justice system. We’re seeing the latter as a light has been shined on law enforcement to reveal corruption and racism within the ranks.
And of course many look on a racist white mass murderer as being mentally ill – and of course, in an oblique way, a person has to be off to be able to plan and carry out such a destructive act – but it’s basically domestic terrorism as well as murder, and homegrown terrorism along with gang killings and drivebys that kill the innocent, exterminates more Americans each year than the foreign terrorism the corporatocracy wants us to be fearful of.
The world is watching as America sorts out her violence problems. Yes, it’s a big country, but that’s no excuse for the level of deaths by firearms that we have. So many people want to brush away all that suffering as if it doesn’t exist or that only bad people die, or whatever the logistic is. But many countries have lots of guns and still don’t have a proportiona level of homicides and suicides compared to the numbers we have.
The USA needs to grow up and re-implement more of the gun control that we used to have, probably along with some much more stringent mental health and criminal background checks. And who needs firearms shows in which you only need present ID to buy a gun – many firearms that turn up in criminal situations have been purchased at these. Shut ’em down. Rethink the 2nd Amendment and reflect upon what type of lifestyle makes us most morally and mentally strong and safe. They say an armed society is a polite society, but I’m not seeing that! I’m seeing an uneasy and fearful society that breeds abuse.
Posted on 06/22/2015, in Potpourri and tagged America, domestic terrorism, equality, gun control, gun violence, opening a dialogue, racism, silence, social justice. Bookmark the permalink. 32 Comments.
We Hold These Truths To Be Self-Evident 
TwoSides, your comment is so great that I can’t add to it. You are right on point!
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Thank you!
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Reblogged this on The Militant Negro™.
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On behalf of Two Sides To A Story, I thank you for the reblog.
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great post by her two sides to a story, I liked it a lot
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Reblogged this on It Is What It Is and commented:
The world is indeed watching! …. The gun violence is spiraling out of control.
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Hey Horty! On behalf of Two Sides To A Story, I thank you for the reblog. (((((Hugs)))))
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You are very welcome. This is a very important topic …. Need to keep it alive!
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Tight, Latin hugs!!
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Thank you so much, Xena. I’m honored to be a member of your blog with all these fine people!
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Two sides, we are honored to be graced by your participation. Thanks so much for being a member of our blog family and expressing your opinions here. They are precious.
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You could not have stated any of this better. An armed society is not a polite society. It becomes an “I’ll show you” society.
Those in denial about the horrible racists issues need a serious wake up call.
Tremendous food for thought…….
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Looks as if the Southern Poverty Law Center has found that Roof used the handle AryanBlood1488 when posting comments to White Supremacists websites.
http://splcenter.org/blog/2015/06/22/dylann-roof-may-have-been-a-regular-commenter-at-neo-nazi-website-the-daily-stormer/
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There’s a person on Twitter with the handle AryanBlood1488. They joined May 2011, have 5 followers, follows no one, and tweeted 13 times. Their tweets are in German.
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Too bad that we as a civilized nation would allow a few individuals with hate in their hearts to control our actions and reactions. At some point in our society we will have to understand that all people “must” enjoy equal rights under our law or this nation will cease to exist. I do remember hearing many years ago, however that hate only reaps hatred, and this seems to become more evident as time passes.
One problem that disturbs me is the thoughts by some people that this young man was not a product of his environment, as if suddenly one morning he awoke and decided that he would become a hate filled racist. If one wishes to understand this persons motives, then it would be necessary to first look closely at his family ties…
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crustyolemothman, for now, I want to focus on the first sentence of your comment:
In Roof’s case here, “our actions and reactions” have been
1. To call out certain media outlets and certain journalists who have spread a false narrative and/or contributed to the hate against the black community and also focused on groups like the Tea Party who “want to take the country back”, a theme echoed by Roof in his words at the scene of his unspeakable, horrific killing when he said the reason he was killing the church’s innocent, beautiful people was because “Blacks were taking over the country.”
2. To recognize that (and push back against) groups like the CCC (Concerned Citizens Council), which rose out of the ashes of the White Citizen’s Council of the 1950’s and 1960’s (labeled by Thurgood Marshall as the “uptown KKK”), had a in its mentoring influence (as noted in the article Xena linked above) on Roof.
3. To recognize that (and push back) the neo-Nazi group that Roof is suspected of submitting 11 comments to also influenced him.
4. To recognize that White Supremacy with its many hate groups needs to be pushed back against and called out for its/their part in influencing Roof ideology which led him to murder of 9 innocent people including Rev. Clementa Pickney, who, I think, had the potential to become a U.S. Senator, even President.
5. To recognize that Roof revered the confederate flag and all of the negative history of hate, slavery, lynchings, and heinous acts it represented and to call for its removal from the SC state capitol.
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yahtzeebutterfly: Excellent deconstruction of my comment, much better than I had expected. Thank you for taking the time to do so. Of course you never considered that my point could have been that if it was not for people like this murderer and their racist actions we would not be having a discussion about the lack of racial equality because there should not be any in this nation. But then again when one searches for negativity in another’s words they often assign their own interruption to those words. You did however outline the actions very accurately that have taken place since the murder of our fellow citizens very well.
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Hey Mothman!
My controlled reaction to hate that hurts people, is likened to having a knee cap, toe or elbow hit hard. There’s a hesitation reaction first. I think some people might refer to it as a wtf moment. Then there’s the reaction to pain and because it hurts, acts to stop the pain.
It is said that hate is taught, or learned. Whether that is through family, acquaintances, reading material, etc., only Dylann can explain what put him on that path.
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Xena,
“It is said that hate is taught, or learned. Whether that is through family, acquaintances, reading material, etc., only Dylann can explain what put him on that path.”
I might suggest that even he has no real understanding of what compelled him to take the path of extreme racism like he did. This level of hatred did not just happen to crop up in an instantaneous manner and as some of his friends have suggested, it was in place for quite some time. However I will concede that this simply an opinion and not claimed as factual evidence.
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Mothman,
It depends on his state of mind and how he thinks of himself. I’ve seen people adopt ideas of hate after sitting in one meeting with a cult, because they are attracted to the idea that they are better than those not in the cult. That conditioning continues as they seek more information to confirm/water the seed planted.
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https://twitter.com/BrewStudNo1/status/613409609139777536
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And now Sears, Walmart and Amazon have joined Ebay.
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Yahtzee,
GOOD! The Confederate Menstrual Flag does not belong in America, anymore than the Nazi flag belongs in Germany.
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You are so right, Xena!
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They say an armed society is a polite society. If this were the case the Black Panthers wouldn’t have been the catalyst for the Mulford Act. Trevor Dooley,John McNeil,John White Lena Baker and so many black people would have been cleared of crimes instead of imprisoned or executed,when they claimed self defense.
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Chuquest. HA! Whomever said that is a bully in heart. An armed society is a threatening society. If people are polite because of an armed society, it’s out of fear, and no creation should live in the spirit of fear. Fear is the opposite of freedom. Fear leads to death, as we hear many who kill say they were afraid. The laws are not balanced, but in all cases, fear takes away freedom — the freedom of the one killed, and the freedom of the one imprisoned. Even George Zimmerman, although acquitted, is not free but in a prison of his own making.
Just imagine how people would resolve conflict if there were no guns.
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Xena, Fear is one of the basic means of control used by the human race. Even the Christian Bible is full of threats to the lowly sinner to repent or be forever lost for all time in a place of fire and brimstone. Do you realize that even as a child most of us heard the following threat, “just wait until you mother/father gets home and finds out what you have done”, this type of control continues all thru life for many people. Where does this simple fear caused by threats stop, or can it be reasonably be expected to stop? These are not real questions, just merely some out loud thinking from an old man…..
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Mothman, I understand. I can only speak for myself, but maybe I was never subjected to having that type of implied fear because from an early age, I had already experienced the spiritual realm. In the movie Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade, I remember the line, “My soul is prepared. How’s yours?”
In Buddhism, there is a physical position of peace to take when faced with death.
With that said, I do try to help others overcome fear. The New Covenant teaches that fear has to do with punishment. Love conquers all. That love has to start within us, as us. Before we can love our neighbors as ourselves, we must first love self. That’s not a self-centered love, and I could probably write a book on that, so will stop now. 🙂
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This video posted by Deray is an interview by SC Rep. Chumley. I am very upset by what he says. He was listed yesterday as being one of the SC Representatives who was going to vote against taking the confederate flag down.
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Where’s the video?
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Oh, there is was — in the spam folder. 🙂
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