(Re)Birth of a Nation

I used to think that our country had reached the magnitude of which I could be ashamed.

Under George W. Bush (or as I call it, the Dark Ages), I thought, foolishly, that the practices and policies which went far beyond free market economics and defending our shores had descended to the lowest depths of reflecting that which is ugly about our country. That which exists as the dark underbelly, tarnishing the bright shining light that is America, land of the free, home of the brave...

I'm sad to say that I was wrong.

I watched the Presidential Address tonight, and was appalled to watch as Republicans held up signs, and legislation, and sat intentionally in their seats, even while Republican-favored platforms were put forth...and one arrogant soul (Representative Joe Wilson, R-SC, who has changed his official Congressional website (http://www.joewilson.house.gov/) so that it only posts his bio and removes contact information, however you can find the contact form here and contact information for him here) called him a liar...

and I was ashamed, once more, to be an American.

Not because there is discord or disagreement amongst politicians, not because they don't wish to support the positions or bills that the President puts forth, but because of the fundamental disrespect inherent in the casual disregard they show for the highest office in the land and the leader of our country. A disrespect and disregard that has never, EVER been there before.

Ever.

But let's be honest, when looking at the 44 Presidents next to each other, it's clear that as they used to sing on Sesame Street, "one of these things is not like the others, one of these things just doesn't belong..."

Or so some would have you believe.

And though it may be couched in terms such as protecting us against socialism, high taxes and death panels, the reality is they believe they are protecting us from something much more dangerous...the Negro!!!!

In 1915 DW Griffith released his "groundbreaking" masterpiece, Birth of a Nation, widely hailed for its technical innovations in camerawork, achievement of the visual language of the cinema and solidification of "Blockbuster"/feature length films...which almost makes you forget that it's a racist piece of propaganda original called the Clansmen and used as a recruiting film for the KKK on into the 70s....

Beginning to see the connection?

No?

Let's step a little further into the Wayback machine and see if history does, in fact, repeat itself.

See the Clansmen--sorry, Birth of a Nation, tells the "heroic" story of how the KKK "saved" the South and by extension the country from the tyrannical rule of Northern (aka East Coast Elite) oppression, and "Negroes" run amuck. The film depicts the common fantasy that African Americans in positions of power, not only have no right to be in office but also disgrace the noble profession through wanton disregard for protocol and sophistication and a socialist agenda to take over the jobs and resources of hard working, upright White people in a gluttony of avarice and sloth. The KKK is so powerful as to move former union and confederate soldiers to join forces against the menace that is...the Negro and his willing White accomplices....routing those forces of evil and saving the country... (like maybe in 2012...)

well, for good upstanding White folk that is...

And now you flash forward to 2009, and that nightmare has become a reality.

The apocalypse has come.

The end of the world is nigh.

For the anti-Christ sits on his throne....

Really???

And every one of them secretly wishes to be "the Little Colonel" (look it up), standing against the wave of Negro injustice and propogation, garnering the forces to deliver the country from the clutches of this modern day Silas Lynch.

Unfortunately, this phantom menace, bent on destroying the country through Health Care Reform and Stimulus packages is no more real than the fiction of Birth...it is a weak attempt at couching the underlying racism that permeates through the hearts and minds of some of our citizenry, given voice through false "teabagging movements" and "average unscripted Americans" showing up at town halls; voices that ring hollow with the taint of that inescapable disease...racism.

Yes, I said it, racism.

See, on the national stage, people are afraid to call this what it is, and the moment you say the word, a huge number of preconceptions arise around what I mean and where this discussion took a turn, but it is, plain and simple. Racism.

Just not your father's brand...

"How do you know?", some will ask. "You can't be sure..." others will say.

No, but while in life there is nothing you can be absolutely sure of...what is clear is that a segment of our country's citizens and elected officials show a blatant disrespect for the holder of an office that two years ago they would have burned you in effigy for merely disagreeing with, the difference is an African American now holds it. And there in lies the key to the riddle.

Like Bilbo's ring, the question of what is and what isn't in the pocket of what we call racism has so many definitions and connotations, that most people shut down when it's mentioned and can't examine the multifacet conundrum that it is.

Racism isn't just burning crosses and race riots, it has transformed and adapted into a quieter, subtler form of the same virulent strain: it is the quiet decision to redistrict and redistribute resources, it is the glass ceiling never shattered, the casual difference in the way people act around different groups, it is a blatant disregard for the office and the authority of the leader of our country. The sheets may have been traded in (well some of the sheets) for business suits, congressional pins and "News" shows, but no matter how much it has changed, the game has remained the same...fear.

We have come so far as a country...crossing racial and cultural boundaries in life, in love, in purpose...the youth today don't see the racial divisions our parents grew up with amongst their friends, corporations engage the communities once oppressed with social conscience and commitment and for the first time in our history, citizens rally around causes ignoring cultural divides, and a person of color is elected to the highest office in the land.

And yet, I am ashamed, because as a country, we have failed. We have failed because we have allowed the least of us, to co-opt our country in an immoral way and stand idly by while they spout lies.

Charlatans and con artists with little to espouse other than hate broadcast it on the airwaves and call it free speech. Manipulators work behind the scenes to organize opposition and stage protests and call it a movement. Scripted pretenders arrive at town halls to read their lines and we call them hard working, honest Americans...and we stand idly by while they pump bile and poison into our life.

We must expect better, we must do better, we must be better. Disagreement and discourse are a part of politics and the American way of life, but without respect, without honorable action, without truth it is little more than pseudo intellectual slam dancing. We are a great nation, but we can be greater. And to do that, we must be a country that puts truth and justice ahead of profit and property and we must shine a beacon on deception and call out those who would hide behind falsehoods and fearmongering.

We must speak truth to power and hold to the light those who would drape their bias and prejudices in scare tactics. We must stay the course as we forge ahead towards a new national conscience of principled idealism. We must cast of these last vestiges or bleaker times and forge ahead bringing the best of us to bear on improving our world, and rising from the ashes of intolerance like a Phoenix onto a new land bringing with it the (Re)Birth of a Nation.

Amen.