#ChronicallyWriting - Our Fight Against the Monster

Trigger warning: mentions of abuse, racism, colonialism, etc. Some views are weak counterpoints to the point of the narrative.

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There has always been a fight between what is considered good and evil. But when the two are intertwined with each other, we need the voices who matter. In the US, it is supposed to be for the people, by the people and of the people. So, where are those voices?

#ChronicallyWriting here. And today's post isn't about left or right. It's about us. It's about everyone. It's about the voices that could be heard, if only we listened and did not speak. It's about a lot of you sitting down and shutting the fuck up.

Yes, you read that right.

Please be patient with me. It's been a long time since I've found this voice. It brings me to an old story I brought up sixteen years ago...

Once upon a time, when my parents' generation were children, there was a group called Steppenwolf. You might know this rock band. They sang the hits, "Born to be Wild" and "Magic Carpet Ride." In 1969, they wrote another song, much less famous than the others, about the corruption and greed of this country called the United States of America. That song was "Monster".

At the time it was released, the band was working through the socio-political atmosphere of the Vietnam War era. They were disillusioned by the government and how their actions led them to the events of their present day (1969-1970). They reflected upon this history, wailing that Americans should stand up and fight against this creature that destroyed everything in its path.

But what was the monster they were referencing?

And here's the bigger picture that Steppenwolf was trying to tell us, from start to finish: this land was not discovered by Columbus in 1492 or by any other explorer. There was no such thing as the "New World" or "Manifest Destiny". Before any European stepped foot on this continent, there were thriving native civilizations. Many of these communities were the basis for our democracy.

Besides, how do you discover land that was already inhabited?

Eventually, these settlers called this new nation THEIRS alone. First, they stole the land in the name of their monarch and enslaved the population. Later, they brought people of color from Africa and forced them into slavery. When the United States was united under the Constitution in 1787, independent from England for nearly a decade, it was only the white men who were allowed into the seats of government.

Steppenwolf added that we "bullied, stole and bought a homeland" and slaughtered million in the process. By trying to eliminate it from the narrative, it erases American history and upholds old prejudices. It turns heads and allows for complacency in corruption, and its strength shouts down the voices of the oppressed.

Did that get your attention?

Good.

If you are thinking that this should not have mattered, that this is the country of the brave and free (because our Founding Fathers took the high road in revolution), let me remind you of our Middle Eastern disasters (pick one). The open racism against the black population, from Hurricane Katrina, George Floyd and Nolan Wells and even spite over the Black Lives Matter movement. The whitewashing of historical figures that were products of their time and owned slaves and openly disregarded anybody who wasn't pale lily white. The elimination of other aspects of American history, including Black, Indigenous, Women, Disabled, etc., voices.

These were our roles in this game called WHITE SUPREMACY.

Poverty, militarism and racism is the ultimate goal of white supremacy, and we played it very well. It was carefully hidden in messaging we could all agree to, such as the mantra "All Lives Matter". All lives into are supposed to matter, right? We love our neighbors and are always nice to them, right?

Let me tell you about my brief life living with white supremacy.

As far back as I could remember, I lived in an all-white neighborhood. It was filled with immigrants, most of them Holocaust survivors and their families. Within a few short years, the neighborhood changed, and we had Bloods next door, selling cocaine openly, and sometimes to the local police force. There was an arsonist who set my father's car ablaze, and the woman on the third floor of our building was raped.

The finger was easily pointed away from us. The enemy soon became those people of color next door. They were the problem, the local government said, but they could do nothing about it. Our only option as a white family was to move.

Between the autumn of 1995 to the summer of 2003, my family lived in a house across town. It was supposed to be an all-white neighborhood. However, low-income housing bordered our back fence. It was there that I learned we had not left our urban trauma behind. However, as I grew older, it also brought me to see humanity in a different light.

Those neighbors behind us were people like us. They had smiles while our white neighbors threatened us when one of us stepped on their yard to grab a ball. They also understood the struggle of being in the margins, fighting the monster that was also squeezing us. Most of them did not have the willpower to stop the trauma, though. They repeated the same cycles of violence.

For the first time, my eyes opened to my privilege as a white woman.

When I reached my teenaged years in the early 2000s, we were told that Arab terrorists destroyed The Twin Towers on 9/11. After the search for bin Laden began in Afghanistan, the United States soon dropped military forces in Iraq, an invasion using "Shock and Awe". After all, we were told that Saddam Hussein had weapons of mass destruction.

From that moment onward, Muslims were to blame for our woes. After all, they were people of color too. There was no trusting any of them, we were told.

Don't you see the pattern now?

If there is a problem in this country, somebody else was to blame. And the solution seems simple. An individual with money and suave pretends to have a complex big enough to erase them and make life better again for you and "your kind". And your vote keeps them in power.

It might not be you this time. You can breathe a sigh of relief. But eventually, that finger is going to point at you...and nobody will be at your side to help you.

Today, two hundred and fifty years after we declared our independence, our current administration believes themselves the only way to save America. Each party doesn't mind gleefully lying on official channels. One expects exaggeration and bragging from the federal government, not an official version of events, despite evidence to the contrary.

The messages are obvious, though. "Leftist politics", even the simple act of empathy or pointing out the rule of law, are being labeled as Communist. Anybody against the current tyrannical administration is an enemy of the state.

Does that sound like America to you?

If you said all lives mattered, then why do you turn away from the corruption and unfair systems that trap humans into slave labor? If we are supposed to support our veterans, then why is government money being taken away for their care? If we are supposed to support the victims of crimes, then why are so many of them disbelieved, and their tormenters allowed to go free? If God loved everyone, then why do you mock the spectrum of genders and complain about pronouns? If autism was such a bad thing, then where is the Christian charity in helping to care for them?

Honestly, how does all of this affect you personally?

More questions come to mind.

Will we have our rights taken away one by one, or will we continue to circumvent a system meant to silence us? Will all the good and necessary trouble be worth it for the future we want for our children? Or, will we continue to always find a way to blame others without looking at the reflection in the mirror?

And in the end, was it worth it?

We are all human beings, and it's time for us to act like it.

Let us never forget these strong words John Kay sang at the end of "Monster":

America, where are you now?

Don't you care about your sons and daughters?

Don't you know we need you now?

We can't fight alone against the MONSTER!

For more inspiration, listen here and here.

PEACE!

#ChronicallyMarginalized #Minorities #TheTruth #Patriarchy #Segregation #The Truth #YouDoMatter #WatchYourNeighbors #Community #YouAreBeloved

**All sources released on request.