Nazis, Antifa, and Michelle Carter
I have too much to write about on this slow summer morning.
I kissed Tempestt Friday night and that was very, very good.
Tomorrow is my first day of school, although the kids don't officially start until next week.
And last night Travis and I got into a debate about Charlottesville.
It frustrates me for many reasons
First Travis has probably been my best friend since middle school. That's a friendship that has be going 17 years or so. We've been roommates on and off seven of those years. I've always respected and valued his perspective.
Second this debate, this issue created a wedge (even if temporary) between two friends and that is when terrorism wins. It isn't their presence being known or the momentary act of violence but the wake, the aftermath did they get inside our heads? Did they disrupt us and if so they have won.
Last night felt like the Charlottesville terrorists and Trump won.
Travis strongly believes violence is never okay as soon as the first hand connects with another individual then all bets are off and that group is illegitimate. (At least this is my lens of his lens)
I kept reverting back to a quote from Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.
I contend that the cry of "black power" is, at bottom, a reaction to the reluctance of white power to make the kind of changes necessary to make justice a reality for the Negro. I think that we've got to see that a riot is the language of the unheard.
I think that we've got to see that a riot is the language of the unheard.
a riot is the language of the unheard
Martin Luther King never condoned violence but the most important part of this quote is that he empathized and understood the violence. Although he did not walk that path and he did not advocate for that path he understood that path.
Antifa is the language of the unheard. They are the language of urgency, while you government powers sit in your congressional meeting and speak from degrees of separation about policy, budgets, and ink on paper, There are real human lives, hungry, sick, neglected, traumatized, addicted, incarcerated, and abandoned they do not have time to wait.
America was "discovered" in 1492 from it's known existence by the Europeans slavery has been allowed until 1865. 373 years of slavery before the blood of brothers, fathers, and sons had to be spilled in this countries soil so that a people group could be viewed as more than another man's property. From 1865 until 1965 another 100 years went by before the civil rights movement.
That's nearly 5 centuries of oppression. 500 years. These people hungry, needing healthcare, afraid of the police these people alive today, right now, this morning, they don't have another 500 years to wait for these government politicians to finish their privileged intellectual debates about whether or not black lives actually matter.
So Antifa picks up their clubs and they meet with the terrorists marching in Charlottesville and their clubs and pepper spray shout loudly as the language of the unheard.
They shout
NOW
not in in the year 2490
NOW
We want everyone to be treated as equal humans
Do I view them as equal to the terrorists marching in the streets?
No
Do I condone their acts of violence?
No
But do I empathize? Do I understand their urgency?
Yes
And I along with all of my white male Ohio friends all have the privilege of safely intellectually debated about the morality of these desperate people from the luxury of our bar top table with our micro brewed IPAs.
Some do not have that luxury.
I wonder before the Nazis had completely taken over Germany where their violent antifa groups resisting?
Was it considered wrong then only to later be considered morally right when the American citizens showed up wearing matching uniforms committing the same acts of violence against the same people group the Nazis?
Or when John Brown was executed by the United State of America for attempting to free slaves through violence only for that same country to commit the same acts of violence for the same exact reason two years later?
So in 1859 it was wrong to kill for the freedom of people
but in 1861 it was legal and encouraged by the same government?
So in 1921 it was morally wrong to become violent with a small group of Nazis as they began their movement but in 1939 after they had invaded another country after innocent people of Poland has been murdered then it became ok to do the same acts?
Travis and Jared both believed that we should allow Nazis, KKK, and white supremacists to march down any street they want saying whatever they want. They have the freedom of speech.
Travis said, they are just ideas, ideas are shit, ideas are nothing.
But in my opinion ideas are everything.
Ideas are the reason for every war ever fought on this planet
Ideas are the most powerful thing humans have
Ideas can create the most beautiful things and destroy thousands of lives.
Anyone should be able to say anything they want?
Ideas are nothing?
Michelle Carter using only a text message helped kill a boy who did not want to commit suicide.
Her freedom of speech killed a person.
Adolf Hitler's freedom of ideas and speech cost 60 million people their lives.
What did Hitler do other than use words from a podium.
Because of ideas and words Charles Manson killed seven people without lifting a violent hand.
Words.
Ideas.
Are powerful, they are dangerous, they are everything.
Nazis, KKK, Nationalists, White supremacist, domestic terrorists their ability to march is dangerous. Their freedom of speech is dangerous.
I understand the dilemma that the door swings both ways. Who decides which ideas should be allowed and which shouldn't? If the government gets involved in sorting through people who can and cannot protest the freedom of speech our countries cornerstone crumbles and the whole democracy falls.
But that to me feels similar to saying if we legalize same sex marriage people will soon want to marry animals and children.
I think dangerous and hateful speech is very simple to identify and point out.
Can Nazis, KKK, white supremacist, nationalists, march peacefully? or is their presence a form of violence in itself?
Is antifa right to swing clubs at "peaceful" domestic terrorist groups protesting?
Was John Brown right to raid?
I think the answer is, once it's too late and gone to far, history looks back when the sequoia of war, violence, and death was just a seed in Charlottesville and perhaps says antifa may have had a point.
And after that exhausting expression of ideas, I'm going to see if I can go on a beautiful morning walk with Tempestt through German Village because I very much enjoy spending time with her.
I contend that the cry of "black power" is, at bottom, a reaction to the reluctance of white power to make the kind of changes necessary to make justice a reality for the Negro. I think that we've got to see that a riot is the language of the unheard.
-Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.
Russ - Losin Control
I have too much to write about on this slow summer morning.
I kissed Tempestt Friday night and that was very, very good.
Tomorrow is my first day of school, although the kids don't officially start until next week.
And last night Travis and I got into a debate about Charlottesville.
It frustrates me for many reasons
First Travis has probably been my best friend since middle school. That's a friendship that has be going 17 years or so. We've been roommates on and off seven of those years. I've always respected and valued his perspective.
Second this debate, this issue created a wedge (even if temporary) between two friends and that is when terrorism wins. It isn't their presence being known or the momentary act of violence but the wake, the aftermath did they get inside our heads? Did they disrupt us and if so they have won.
Last night felt like the Charlottesville terrorists and Trump won.
Travis strongly believes violence is never okay as soon as the first hand connects with another individual then all bets are off and that group is illegitimate. (At least this is my lens of his lens)
I kept reverting back to a quote from Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.
I contend that the cry of "black power" is, at bottom, a reaction to the reluctance of white power to make the kind of changes necessary to make justice a reality for the Negro. I think that we've got to see that a riot is the language of the unheard.
I think that we've got to see that a riot is the language of the unheard.
a riot is the language of the unheard
Martin Luther King never condoned violence but the most important part of this quote is that he empathized and understood the violence. Although he did not walk that path and he did not advocate for that path he understood that path.
Antifa is the language of the unheard. They are the language of urgency, while you government powers sit in your congressional meeting and speak from degrees of separation about policy, budgets, and ink on paper, There are real human lives, hungry, sick, neglected, traumatized, addicted, incarcerated, and abandoned they do not have time to wait.
America was "discovered" in 1492 from it's known existence by the Europeans slavery has been allowed until 1865. 373 years of slavery before the blood of brothers, fathers, and sons had to be spilled in this countries soil so that a people group could be viewed as more than another man's property. From 1865 until 1965 another 100 years went by before the civil rights movement.
That's nearly 5 centuries of oppression. 500 years. These people hungry, needing healthcare, afraid of the police these people alive today, right now, this morning, they don't have another 500 years to wait for these government politicians to finish their privileged intellectual debates about whether or not black lives actually matter.
So Antifa picks up their clubs and they meet with the terrorists marching in Charlottesville and their clubs and pepper spray shout loudly as the language of the unheard.
They shout
NOW
not in in the year 2490
NOW
We want everyone to be treated as equal humans
Do I view them as equal to the terrorists marching in the streets?
No
Do I condone their acts of violence?
No
But do I empathize? Do I understand their urgency?
Yes
And I along with all of my white male Ohio friends all have the privilege of safely intellectually debated about the morality of these desperate people from the luxury of our bar top table with our micro brewed IPAs.
Some do not have that luxury.
I wonder before the Nazis had completely taken over Germany where their violent antifa groups resisting?
Was it considered wrong then only to later be considered morally right when the American citizens showed up wearing matching uniforms committing the same acts of violence against the same people group the Nazis?
Or when John Brown was executed by the United State of America for attempting to free slaves through violence only for that same country to commit the same acts of violence for the same exact reason two years later?
So in 1859 it was wrong to kill for the freedom of people
but in 1861 it was legal and encouraged by the same government?
So in 1921 it was morally wrong to become violent with a small group of Nazis as they began their movement but in 1939 after they had invaded another country after innocent people of Poland has been murdered then it became ok to do the same acts?
Travis and Jared both believed that we should allow Nazis, KKK, and white supremacists to march down any street they want saying whatever they want. They have the freedom of speech.
Travis said, they are just ideas, ideas are shit, ideas are nothing.
But in my opinion ideas are everything.
Ideas are the reason for every war ever fought on this planet
Ideas are the most powerful thing humans have
Ideas can create the most beautiful things and destroy thousands of lives.
Anyone should be able to say anything they want?
Ideas are nothing?
Michelle Carter using only a text message helped kill a boy who did not want to commit suicide.
Her freedom of speech killed a person.
Adolf Hitler's freedom of ideas and speech cost 60 million people their lives.
What did Hitler do other than use words from a podium.
Because of ideas and words Charles Manson killed seven people without lifting a violent hand.
Words.
Ideas.
Are powerful, they are dangerous, they are everything.
Nazis, KKK, Nationalists, White supremacist, domestic terrorists their ability to march is dangerous. Their freedom of speech is dangerous.
I understand the dilemma that the door swings both ways. Who decides which ideas should be allowed and which shouldn't? If the government gets involved in sorting through people who can and cannot protest the freedom of speech our countries cornerstone crumbles and the whole democracy falls.
But that to me feels similar to saying if we legalize same sex marriage people will soon want to marry animals and children.
I think dangerous and hateful speech is very simple to identify and point out.
Can Nazis, KKK, white supremacist, nationalists, march peacefully? or is their presence a form of violence in itself?
Is antifa right to swing clubs at "peaceful" domestic terrorist groups protesting?
Was John Brown right to raid?
I think the answer is, once it's too late and gone to far, history looks back when the sequoia of war, violence, and death was just a seed in Charlottesville and perhaps says antifa may have had a point.
And after that exhausting expression of ideas, I'm going to see if I can go on a beautiful morning walk with Tempestt through German Village because I very much enjoy spending time with her.
I contend that the cry of "black power" is, at bottom, a reaction to the reluctance of white power to make the kind of changes necessary to make justice a reality for the Negro. I think that we've got to see that a riot is the language of the unheard.
-Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.
Russ - Losin Control