Sh*tty People and the Right of Ignorance

There's a clip from the TV program The Newsroom in which the character that actor Jeff Daniels portrays goes to town after being asked "why is America the greatest country in the world?" He explains, vehemently, I might add, that America isn't even close to being the greatest country in the world anymore. In citing many reasons for that assessment, and in lamenting the things that made this nation great, once upon a time, the monologue rings quite poignantly. Taking it for what it is, a part of a piece of sensationalized fiction, I still can't help but watch it and think to myself that he's absolutely right. And then I wake up, turn on the television, and am convinced he's right. This morning I woke up to news that, in my city, there was a drive-by shooting at a basketball game at the Boys and Girls Club. Three killed, four injured. In a shooting. At the Boys and Girls Club. AT THE F*CKING BOYS AND GIRLS CLUB.

 

It's not that our nation isn't great; no, it's the fact that our nation, the United States of America, is full of shitty people.

 

In what world is a drive-by shooting at a Boys and Girls Club in any way acceptable? When is a shooting of any kind acceptable??? What kind of deranged mind is so sick and twisted to believe that such an act would ever be justified? Human lives, extinguished, for what? Money? Drugs? Jealously? I could continue to rattle off reason after reason, none of which will ever possess even a shred of legitimacy. You, whoever did this, are a monster. A disgusting, SHITTY PERSON.

 

This comes on the heels of another police-involved shooting in which, according to NBC news, a man drew a gun on an officer serving a search warrant. A gunfight ensued and the man was killed. Rather than acknowledge the fact that the officer was doing his job, and what the man did in raising a weapon to the officer was illegal, people instead focus on the fact that the man was African-American and the officer was white. What does the community do in response? "Protest." Newsflash: You're not protestors. When you riot, wreak havoc, and cause property damage, you're not protestors. YOU'RE F*CKING CRIMINALS. How are your actions going to effectuate change? How is destroying someone else's property helpful in bringing down racial barriers in any way, shape or form? It's NOT. In fact it perpetuates stereotypes and animosity. It increases the hatred, not diminishs it. It makes you a SHITTY PERSON. But God forbid a police officer arrest a "protestor," because then it's just more of "the establishment coming down on the man."

 

Not, it's not, you ignorant piece of slime. It's you committing a crime in response to something you perceive as a wrong, when in fact YOU are the one in the wrong. Did you know all of the facts of the shooting before you smashed windshields and set garbage cans on fire? I'm gonna go out on a limb and say no. Why do I say that? Because unless you were there, you have no idea what truly transpired. I have no idea what actually happened. No one other than the participants and immediate onlookers has the first clue as to how things occurred. Yet you reacted, criminally, with no justification or consideration for the consequence.

 

I am so tired of seeing stories like this. It sickens me to my core to see stories of such hatred and violence when there is absolutely no reason for it. We are at war with ourselves and we don't have even in inkling as to why. This saddens me. This frightens me. This makes me ashamed. What kind of shitty people are we when even something like September 11^th can't unify us as a people? How are we not a unified nation in the aftermath of a tragedy that affected us all?

 

Instead, we continue to hate. We continue to draw barriers based on race. We continue to intimidate and objectify on the basis of gender. We continue to discriminate on the basis of sexual orientation. And we pride ourselves in doing such. What makes America great, indeed.

 

Our politicians, who seek to lead us, deceive us. They espouse bigotry in rejecting marriage equality. They epitomize hypocrisy in voicing their desire for transparency in government while they delete entire servers full of email correspondence. They don't stand for what is right – they posture for what is right for them.

 

Our athletes cheat, take drugs, and beat their spouses. Our spokespeople have illegal sex with minors. Our newscasters lie. Those that espouse family values have secret accounts with websites promoting and encouraging spousal infidelity. Corporate greed runs rampant while our veterans lay homeless in the streets. Hardworking families can barely scrape by while welfare recipients consistently find ways to beat the system and reap benefits to which they shouldn't be entitled. And this all happens because we allow it.

 

We allow it to happen. Each of us. All of us collectively. And what am I doing to stop it? Not nearly enough, I suppose. But that begs the question…. How do we stop it? How do we end the hatred, the disparity, the bigotry, the ignorance? I'm asking you, because I don't have a f*cking clue. How do we become a nation in which slogans such as "black lives matter" are no longer necessary? When can we unite and simply say "all lives matter"??? What is it going to take? What will finally make us realize that we are destroying ourselves when we could be doing so much better? The Wrath of God, perhaps? Nuclear war? A zombie apocalypse or alien invasion? Do we really need to delve into fiction until we reach that tipping point at which life imitates art before we can stop the insanity that plagues our society?

 

My practicality tells me that none of this will end in our lifetime, or our children's lifetime either, for that matter. No, we'll just continue to skate along and turn a blind eye to the chaos we create. Because we can. Because that's what makes America great. It's not Freedom of Speech, Freedom of Religion, or the Right to Bear Arms. No, there's one inalienable right that ever single American owns, and exercises, on a daily basis: The right of ignorance.

 

Maybe that's the answer: end ignorance, and the rest will follow. The problem with ignorance, though, is the fact that it is the juggernaut force behind all of the other ills that ail our nation. It's pervasive, and unstoppable, and it won't relent until it finally meets the immovable object that will finally halt its advance. Until then, if "then" ever occurs, we'll just go on being shitty people, and all we can do is strive to be less shitty in the meantime.

 

I don't know. I just don't know. I can vent my frustrations here on these pages, but by and large, the people reading this aren't the ones to whom this message should extend. You read this blog because you are already like-minded. You value life. You respect one another. You don't (at least I hope you don't) go around shooting people. Sure, you can be shitty sometimes, and so can I. Maybe we can do something, something little, and whittle away at the issue one gesture at a time. Is that realistic? Probably not, but I say what the hell. It's worth a shot.

 

Tell someone you love them. Buy a stranger a coffee in the drive-thru lane. Hold a door open or pick something up for the person that dropped it. Compliment someone's hair, shoes or smile. Tell a joke and make someone smile. Or maybe even simply stay silent if you know your words will hurt. Make an effort. Any effort. Do something. Just don't be shitty.

 

 

© 2015 J.J. Goodman. All rights reserved.