Some Thoughts on Ferguson

 

For the past couple of weeks I’ve been following all of the events surrounding the shootings in Ferguson and other areas of the country. We saw videos, heard opinions one way and the other and have seen protests not turning ugly, but beginning that way and staying that way. We’ve seen people saying that these incidents were race related and others search out and post information about white people being shot by black officers, further expanding the race divide on the issue. We’ve also seen officers standing up for their fellow officers and whites and blacks jumping their “race line” and defending their opposite race.

The issues have gotten the masses talking about the racial divide and how race issues are almost as bad as they’ve always been, at least in some areas of the country, which is quite a bold if not uneducated determination considering our very tumultuous history, but something is certainly wrong with our current situation.

I did not grow up in a very diverse community. Our school attempted, for a while, to run a foreign exchange program to assist us in learning more about cultures foreign from our own, and help us to dispel some of the prejudices that you may be more prone to, growing up in a single culture area.

The program was great in theory and it definitely led to some lifetime friendships and accomplished the proclaimed goal of exposing all of us (the kids and adults from my town as well as the exchange students) to different ways of life, but ultimately the large scale program failed.

Why?

Because eventually the foreign exchange students grouped together as one unit and the kids from my area as another. They were no longer one harmonious group learning from each other, but they were two groups who focused too much on their differences and not enough on their similarities. The two groups who started as open minded and eager to learn and interact with each other formed prejudices. It may have been a few individuals who turned the groups (which more times than not, proves to be the case) or it could have been baggage passed down from previous generations. But whatever the case there was an igniting incident which led to what can best be described as an all-out melee in our school cafeteria one lunch hour. This led to several other group against group fights and ultimately to the end of what had been a very successful program.

We were lucky enough to still have some families who recognized the importance of learning from each other who still would recruit and welcome in a few foreign exchange students each year, but our large scale program eventually failed all do to a few individuals who incited the masses.

This brings me back to Ferguson. My personal opinion, take it or leave it, is that for the most part we’re dealing with misplaced anger. Too quickly we jump on the race, religion, sex, nationality, or whatever convenient band wagon. We take isolated incidents and turn them into causes. We blow incidents out of proportion and turn a whole group of people against another group of people instead of looking at the specific incident and individuals. Maybe the young man who was shot was completely innocent or completely to blame. Maybe the officer acted exactly as he should and did his job to the letter of the law, or maybe he murdered an innocent man…but the incident involved those two individuals. It certainly affected their families and loved ones, but it was an incident involving not groups, but individuals.

 Too often we group ourselves together, be it by your favorite sports team, the school you attend, the neighborhood you live in, the church you attend, your gender, your race or your nationality. We group ourselves together and forget about ourselves as individuals. When we do this we tend to take isolated incidents and latch onto them as something concerning the whole group. Nobody’s better at establishing “group think” than the people who represent us in government. These individuals are generally the first ones to tell us that these incidents aren’t group but individual related, unless it affects their party line, at which point they of course choose sides and tell you the opposite side is dead wrong…and there’s something wrong with that.

These people and their actions are portrayed in front of us (via television, radio, and multiple other sources) more than any others, and the example they set for everyone is to toe that party line, which can then lead to mean; race, religion, country or whatever line. Do what’s best for the group, damn the consequences and the individual.

So we get Republicans telling us what the Democrats idolize is wrong and vice versa. Not that John Smith made a valid point or that they disagree with that individual, but that he represents his party, so they’re wrong….which in turn leads to; all cops are killers of innocent men, all white people hate black people, all black people break laws, loot and burn down buildings…and quite frankly, that’s bullshit and I, for one, won’t accept it.

“Don’t judge a book by its cover,” is the essence of prejudice and it’s something we may all be guilty of but it needs to stop. Stop grouping individuals and as individuals we need to stop doing it to ourselves as well. We may fall into these sub categories on the surface, but we’re all still very unique people with our own views, opinions, and beliefs. We are not our gender, race, religion, country, political party or any other singularity. We are complex and unique and each one of us is responsible for ourselves and our actions.

”The biggest mistake of people is that they think they do not deserve the good and bad things from their lives.” – Paulo Coelho

My heart goes out to all of the individuals involved in these incidences and I truly hope that you can find some peace.

Don’t look for the differences between you and your fellow man, for you may only find hate. Look for the similarities and hopefully we can find love.