reality: a concept lost?
Woe to those who call evil good and good evil, who put darkness for light and light for darkness, who put bitter for sweet and sweet for bitter (Isaiah 5:20). To which it’s said: Blood is thicker than water. To which, I wholly disagree. It’s also said there are two sides to every story, understanding truth lies somewhere in the middle. Thus, combining the two adages, when I watch the news, and view America’s landscape, I’m perplexed. Actually, dumbfounded. I apparently grew up in a country quite distant from the one now being railed against by protesters and destroyed by rioters. So, when I look back at history and think of those who sacrificed life to bring us this nation we call the United States of America, was it in vain? Their blood spilled for naught. Like water running its course to the ocean, starting out fresh, then brackish, and ending salt. Yet, isn’t salt a spice, adding flavor to food, but when dissolved in water, horrible to drink. Or our forebear’s truth, an apparent prevarication based on today’s pontifications. A cycle of manipulating the past to create a present based on a lie deemed truth: like mixing salt and water then claiming it’s thirst quenching.
In my youth, attending school was an exercise in futility. My years spent being educated, ending dumber than when I started. The song lyrics: Don’t know much about history, don’t know what a slide-rule is for, fit me like a glove. Only, I was never a reader until I became so, devouring Louis L’Amour westerns. Then one day I picked up a non-fiction book, and my latent abstract view re-learning the America I love began. I started to wonder if what was taught in school as white hat, rich in historical events presenting unique perspectives of national greatness was truth? Columbus discovered America; Plymouth - the original colony where Pilgrims settled to escape religious persecution; Custer was massacred by the Lakota Sioux, and Billy the Kid; the nefarious outlaw, just to skim the surface. Except in my self-taught realm of learning I began to posit a truthful reality, after gleaning multiples of perspectives to form a whole, opposed to the educational force-fed slanted agenda. So, going back to the history taught in school: Was it slanted, factual, perverted, construed to fit a narrative, or misconstrued to present a narrative?
Well, for beginners, the slide-rule. I never made it out of remedial math, so never even held one, thus unable to comment. Yet, now we have calculators, but I still struggle with remedial math, although … Columbus didn’t, and Plymouth wasn’t. But let’s not get into Christopher’s antics of havoc, while the lost colony at Roanoke was actually first, except no one survived. Or did they? Plus, for the Pilgrims it was all about money, not religion. And by date alone, wouldn’t Jamestown be the first colony? Even JFK acknowledged they had the first Thanksgiving, upsetting that historical claim. Then Custer; let’s just say he bit off more than he could chew, making the persecuted, the persecutors, their only crime, defending what was theirs. But were they really first or did they take what wasn’t theirs from another. Preserved ruins (national landmarks) present the possibility of their aggression to usurp another. Plus, Custer’s hubris was his demise. Didn’t he boast: Give me 250 men and I’ll wipe out the entire Sioux nation! He had them and didn’t, his soldiers sacrificed for his desired glory. Then Billy? He took one in the back because of his belief in cowboy justice. I suggest; peruse the Lincoln County Range War, and an abstract view of calling evil good, and good evil will emerge. Just like modern society is witnessing, as America isn’t as great as we’re led to believe – right?
For context, I propose a story from the Bible, a hint of our nation and what we are currently living through. A woman caught in the act of adultery was brought before Jesus to be stoned to death. Except, doesn’t the act in and of itself require two to tango? Yet only one was accused, being the female half of the equation. The accusers, stones in hand, ready to administer justice to the one apprehended. Both guilty, but only one charged. Jesus, looking amongst the accusers, proclaimed: If any one of you is without sin, let him be the first to throw a stone at her (John 8:7). Suddenly, stones began to drop from unclenched fists ending in thumps on the ground as those very accusers turned, departed, and the woman, freed from condemnation, stood, unjudged by those who just earlier were ready to judge her in death, their sins made self-apparent to them.
Today, America, like the woman caught, stands accused, judged, and convicted by its own citizens and legislators ready to rip apart the fabric that’s held this nation together for the past 250 years. Are the accusations valid? While in truth, our problems today lay, not in the nation’s framing, but individuals, leaders, and teachers. Those in power or position either good or bad, who’ve perverted truth, justice, and the nation itself, even though there is good and bad in each of us. Our own sins, hopefully never to be revealed, forming one nation for all – perfect in design, but imperfect in application, as man’s heart will devise evil intent.
In my youth I struggled wholeheartedly with learning, names being a big part of my angst. From the time I could talk, Mom used one, Dad another, my three older sisters theirs. I knew them all quite well, even though I’d never heard my given name. So, on my first day of school, my ignorance bubbled to the surface as the teacher called out names individually. Looking for each student’s response, when she came to mine, met silence. Gaining my attention, she asked me: Aren’t you Ricardo? Sitting attentively, I politely told her: No mam, but I have three; Son (dad), Damn it (mom), and Ritardo (three older sister’s/emphasis theirs). At the end of the day, I was so proud as I was the only student pinned with a note for home. And thus, my school career started and eventually ended. Only today, I now know better even though I’m constantly reminded by those who believe I don’t. And even though I’ve read and re-read hundreds of books, yet without credentials, I’m dismissed as lunatic. There was a time when I was blind, but can now see, wondering if the rest of America is blinder than I, or endowed with more lunacy.
In Lincoln County, Billy fought injustice. His boss, Tunstall, murdered in cold blood and those who committed the crime would have been acquitted in a court of law. Billy corrected the injustice, and the Lincoln County Range War began. Was he wrong in his perceived orthodox of law and order, eye for eye, tooth for tooth? While his government was complicit, it condoned and supported the actions of those who called evil good. In our current climate, citizens, without the desire to learn or understand, are allowing history’s erasure. And by doing so, will the vacuum generated be an amalgamation intended to form a bias of confusion lacking veracity to obfuscate national truth?
America’s monolithic foundation (Declaration of Independence/Constitution/Bill of Rights): unknown by most who call themselves American who are unwilling to read their founding documents or understand their history, both good and bad to see how great this nation can be or actually is. In his day, I believe the Kid’s intent was to right wrong and hold accountable those requiring accountability – Cowboy Justice. The question begs: What are we doing today besides nothing?
