America, Where Are You?

 With the recent chaos that has engulfed our cities in the United States, I have found myself bewildered at the seeming acceptance of all the lawlessness. America has always been a land of law and order (now, before you jump down my throat and bring up the race riots of the 60’s, Rodney King, and events like those, I will speak to those events later). As a whole, we have always sought for peace and to settle discord through legal means. Yes, demonstrations have occurred throughout the history of our great nation, and some have devolved into bedlam, but America has always sought for justice through law.

 

Let me define America. America is not a land, it is not borders, flags, politicians, etc. America is the people. We are what make America, America. The opening words of the Constitution of the United States of America states, “We the people of the United States, in order to form a more perfect union, establish justice, insure domestic tranquility, provide for the common defense, promote the general welfare, and secure the blessings of liberty to ourselves and our posterity, do ordain and establish the Constitution for the United States of America.” You see, “we the people” moved to establish a more perfect union. “We the people” establish justice, domestic tranquility, provide for the common defense, promote the general welfare of our fellow citizens, and “we the people” secure the blessings of liberty for ourselves and our posterity. Therefore, America is “we the people”.  There is no other way of defining what America is, America is the people. 

 

There is a lot to be said of the people. We come from all walks of life. Whether from the squalor of poverty or from the lavish luxury of wealth and everything in between.  We come from many varied experiences in life. We are a strong and resilient people. We are giving and charitable to our core. We have a long tradition of protecting those who cannot protect themselves. We hate bullies and never back down when faced with opposition.

 

That being said, I ask again, America, where are you? We are witnessing our cities burn, get looted, vandalized and taken over by thugs and lowlifes. That’s right, I said lowlifes. Those who would put their desire to destroy and pillage before the needs of all others are lowlifes, selfish, self-centered, pathetic, and scum. I make no apologies for my harsh critique of these thugs. No man (and I use that term loosely) or woman should feel that they have the right to destroy other’s property or to take life because of an ideology that they adhere to. And that is what it is, an ideology base on emotion and lies. They refuse to look at facts, but would rather believe the hype because it fuels the innate animal within them. 

 

Have there been innocent people shot and killed by the police? The answer is admittedly, yes. Yes, there has been. Just one innocent person killed at the hands of police is horrible. Just this year alone there have been 558 total police shootings; 111 of those were of black citizens and 215 were of white citizens. The remaining are a combination of Hispanic, other and those of an unknown race. That’s a lot of people. Some of those people were innocent and some were not. 

The reality is that not everyone shot and killed by police are the victims of police brutality. There are some who were in the act of committing a crime. Who were fighting with police and/or were threatening to hurt or kill an innocent person. In all actuality, the vast majority of encounters with law enforcement do not terminate with the death of someone. That is the Hollywood portrayal of police encounters. There are indeed some bad officers. Just as there are bad teachers who rape their students, just as there are bad truck drivers who kidnap and kill people, the list can go on and on. There are bad people. We know that, we see it all around us. The murder rate in the United States is 6 in every 100,000 people. That’s a lot of bad people. Not that I am attempting to marginalized those who are killed at the hands of officers of the law. But if you take a look at the previously noted number of 111 black citizens (since this seems to be the only number of victims that we are concerned about in the United States right now) only a fraction of those individuals was unarmed, and out of those only a small fraction were innocent victims of what could be characterized in the majority of cases as a split-second decision that was wrong. I wholeheartedly believe that the vast majority of police officers do not have a personal vendetta against people of color. I believe it to be a disingenuous argument to say otherwise, and those who pound their moral chests and pontificate upon the injustices committed against people of color by the systemic racism that exists in law enforcement are stoking the fires of discord for political and personal agendas. And America is silent.

I am tired of watching my beloved country collapse into a chasm of moral decay. The citizen is silenced by a minority of the populace fearing that they will offend, or be ridiculed into silence. People express their feelings and they lose their job. Online trolls scour the pages of social media to lay waste to those who dare hold a differing opinion than their own, and then they scurry back into their online anonymity like the roaches that they are. 

 

There is no guarantee within the Constitution of the United States that you will not be offended. The fact that there are such a vast number of differing opinions on any given subject should cause the average American to shout hallelujah at the showcase of freedom that that represents to the world, but we don’t. We cower to the chaos. We sit in silence as we watch our land descend down the rabbit hole from which there is no easy escape, and our nation burns and crumbles before our eyes and we shut our eyes and pretend that nothing is happening and we go our merry way. We pound our chests and foam at the mouth as we defend a political affiliation, but when it comes to this Land, we sit idly and quietly doing nothing.

 

My heart breaks at the sight before me. Death goes unnoticed unless that death is a black citizen and the cops were the cause of death otherwise the death doesn’t matter to the masses gathered demanding that we declare the supremacy of black lives. This while the murder rate in Chicago and other cities skyrocket dwarfing previously reported years in the same timeframe. How can we expect to live free and perpetuate this great city set on a hill when we cannot even stand for justice for all people? When we are lambasted for declaring that all life matters? When we defend the right to life of an unborn child and are ridiculed for those personal beliefs, and then are sentenced to years in prison for ending the life of a litter of puppies. Life matters means nothing to society today. Because life doesn’t matter, agendas matter, political platforms matter, the new trendy hairstyle, clothing line, car, Tik Tok challenge, etc matter, but life doesn’t matter to society anymore. Unless that life can be used as political fodder. Then and only then does life matter.

 

This is not America. At least the America that we are supposed to be. It’s not the America bequeathed to us by our forefathers. Yes, our forefathers. The Constitution was written for all people regardless of color, race or creed. It was written to protect life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness for all people. So, America, where are you? Are you going to rise up and take your country back from the brink, or are you going to sit there in quiet repose and do nothing and watch it burn? Will you rise to the occasion or shrink before the cause of liberty?

 

This all stops when we arrive at the conclusion that we are America. That we are not racists. That we are not hate filled. That we are the most giving and charitable nation upon the face of the earth. That we are great because we are good in our hearts and we should be willing to spread our goodness.

 

So, America, where are you? Stand and be counted! Stand and take back your cities. Take back your freedom. Take back your nation and be a Nation United!