The Stepping Stones

Aside from the usual banter, chants, and grumbles of the post-election atmosphere, one of the most disturbing thing to read about is how children have been compromised by the entire process. Not long ago, I read about 2nd and 3rd grade children chanting "Assassinate Obama" on a school bus in Idaho. How in the world do children so young even understand the concept and ramifications, much less even SPELL the word "assassinate"?

Yes, THAT word has reared its ugly head again... ejected from the mouths of this country's future... our children. It's a word that even to this day, I can't even fully grasp the concept of -- racism. Those friends and colleagues that grew up with me.. went through the Cedar Hill school system and to points beyond.. you remember watching the L.A. riots and witnessing the random coagulation of everyday African-Americans. Commoners turned feral and took to the streets along with members of the Blood & Crip-style gangs of old, terrorizing Caucasian citizens. One truck driver was dragged out of his car and beaten -- just to counter the perceived injustice of the Rodney King incident. Now, exactly how did things transgress from the 1960s peaceful marches of the Martin Luther King-ites to targeting Caucasians with fits of violence and ignorance in the late 1980s?

You remember the days following 9/11 where people of Middle-Eastern descent (or people who APPEARED to be) were the recipients of a horrific backlash as a result of extremist idiots who died in their act of stupidity, ignorance, and violence.

You remember the days where Hispanics were immediately thought to be illegal immigrants from Mexico with no car insurance.

And now? The focus has turned back to the nation's first Black president and those who voted for him. There seems to be an underlying theme to the madness -- a theme of stepping stones. We seek out those like us and then step on those who are not like us. We use them as stepping stones to buoy ourselves against the fear, rage, and sense of loss that terrorizes our own souls. The worst thing of all is that innocent children are caught in the crossfire and marred with irreparable damage for God knows how long.

Since when was the DC Sniper Caucasian? Remember the FBI running around, profiling the perpetrator to be some deranged, middle-aged White guy? Since when was the Oklahoma City bomber some Muslim guy on a mission to the destroy the United States of America? Since when was a college campus sprayed with the bullets of some gangsta Black guy? Our embrace of stepping stones failed us in these accounts... just ask the victims.

The idea to chew on is this: what happens when you've stepped on all of the stones, and there are no more left? What happens if everyone that is obviously different than you is eliminated from this Earth? Would it REALLY end? Or would we start delving into the more subtle differences and start the process all over again until there is one person left?

I believe these "stepping stones" are derivatives of something we collectively call "issues". We use issues to form wedges between groups of people who wouldn't care less if they weren't thrust into a national spotlight. We use "issues" to carve up our society into distinct groups, put them in paper bags, and let them rip each other to ribbons.

Seriously... how is Joe the Rancher in Nebraska personally affected if a woman in Washington has an abortion? How is Josephine the Hairdresser in Utah personally affected by two men who get married in Connecticut? How is Matt the Plumber in Alaska affected if Lady X in Florida smokes marijuana for medicinal purposes?

How can any "moral" cause be just if it turns two people or two groups of people against each other? We are poisoned by the stepping stones... and our children now drink from our hands...