Hidden In Plain Sight

We have a problem in The United States of America in regards to the inequality between genders. Most importantly, we have a more than 400-year old problem of racial tension between blacks and whites. I won't sugar-coat it with the politically correct terminology, but I won't be offensive about this issue either.

Our nation has taken baby steps and there are periods in American History of chaos forcing us to leap forward. We change old laws, we make new ones, and we work case-by-case towards changing for the better. America is kind of new when compared to the older, more stable countries like China, Japan, Mexico even, and the European countries like France, Ireland, and Spain. We became ONE Nation for All on July 4, 1776. Before that date it was a floundering divided colony, formed by English Colonists that wanted to leave the British rule because...well, they decided the Crown's laws sucked! They fought tribes of people that already occupied North America. They started fighting each other about their own laws, war broke out, the French invaded, then another bunch of wars broke out. Still the British Colonists persisted and won. I still wonder if French Fries would be French if the French had won. Who doesn't?

Long into the signing of the Declaration of Independence, even after deciding on having a position called 'The President of the United States of America', to be filled using a voting system restricted to 'White men who owned property only', these determined people continued to fight for how they believed free citizens of this new country should be allowed to live. It didn't mean their rules for voting were correct or even fair. The African slaves had no rights. NONE. Slaves were openly traded and inspected like animals. They were kept chained, raped, abused, and forced into labor until they either escaped or died. Most slaves were kept purposely uneducated. When the U.S. Constitution was signed in 1787, slaves weren't even considered a whole entire person, and runaway slaves had to be returned to their owners. When slavery finally did get Abolished in the 1865 passage of the 13th Amendment, it never really ended. Slavery was an openly practiced, world-wide event between many different countries. Trading human beings that were thought of as work animals, was considered a 'business'. It has been widely associated with one trait: skin color. Racism has deep roots in the human psyche, and the eradication of such beliefs in regards to skin color, religion, and country of origin, has been a fight the whole world has had to deal with for centuries.

Here we are in the year 2020. There is a ton of chaos in progress around the U.S. in regards to bringing awareness to the murder and harassment of unarmed non-white and black men, women, and children at the hands of white 'Vigilantes'.

Whether these white men and women who carry out these hate-crimes are police officers or not makes absolutely no difference. Their fear against other human beings with darker skin than them is completely without reason and absolutely needs to stop. "Two wrongs don't make a right", as the saying goes. We can't all run around being 'Vigilantes' when we have a beautiful country that needs law and order.

We all were aware the moment President Trump stepped into Washington, DC that a line became blurred. We need to remember the free and enslaved black men and women, born here or brought here, who helped build this country. We need to remember that many died, either on slave ships from Africa or on American soil, even though we never knew their names. We need to remember the Civil Rights leaders that fought and died to make a boundary that we have continued to maintain. We cannot let that line become less-defined. The Abolishers of American slavery, the white men and women who fought on behalf of black human beings who were kept so uneducated they couldn't read or write, cannot be forgotten in 2020.

Most importantly, we cannot allow the mentality of those cruel Slavers who so blatantly practiced Human Trafficking creep into our daily lives now. That is why former slaves, like Frederick Douglass, wrote books on themselves. To educate the American people, black and white, men and women, in a future they would not be here for...except in the spirit of their written word.

The racial tension pressure cooker has exploded and we have a mess to clean up:

• We need to make the boundary thicker by continuing to be pro-active about human rights.

• We need to reinforce our constitutional rights.

• We have to develop patience for the due process towards the conviction of hate-crimes.

A community is about solidarity. It's about helping your neighbor, watching out for the local mom and pop shops on the corner, and individually helping to make our communities safer for children and the elderly. It's about reinforcing positive behavior in each other for the future of this country. Each community makes up a larger one. This is no longer 13 Colonies like in 1776. The United States is 50 States, plus territories like Puerto Rico, and American Samoa islands, etc. Our American Culture has become richer than it was when the Declaration of Independence was signed by a few white guys angry with the English Monarch.

The mural that Washington, DC Mayor, Muriel Bowser had painted on 16th street leading to Lafayette Square and the White House, is a great PEACEFUL statement towards showing support to the Black Lives Matter Movement. Even the Pentagon doesn't support the President's demand for Military Violence towards American Civilians who are peacefully protesting.

President Trump has caused a stir and he keeps the pot going! He has shown with consistency:

• A lack of ability to empathize with our basic human rights
• Alack of proper communication during American economic depression
• A lack of basic scientific knowledge to the suffering his improper medical advice during his speeches can cause panicked American people during a Global Pandemic

In Niagara Falls, New York, just another city with it's share of crime and Coronavirus deaths, there have been peaceful protests going on all this past week. Even so, in expectation of further possible, out-of-area violent protestors, stores have boarded up and curfews have been in place. The local crime has significantly dropped since the Pandemic. Niagara Falls City Police Officers, Niagara Falls Police Chief Thomas Licata, Niagara County Sheriff Mike Felicetti, and the City of Niagara Falls Mayor, Robert Restaino all took a knee in empathy with the Black Lives Matter Movement.

Niagara Falls also has a community group, The Peacekeepers, of which a very good friend of mine is a member of. That right there is a huge relief to me, as mother to two grown sons, that in these dangerous times where conflicts arise and can go either way, The Peacekeepers in the City of Niagara Falls would intervene and help to mentor a non-violent way of settling disputes. Childhood is a very trying time and children to model after what they see. If given a better alternative, most choose a better pattern of communication through problems and that will last a lifetime!

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