Decisive and deliberate actions

Being apolitical is a nearly impossible feat hindered by our personal upbringings and our lives lived.  All our experiences influence who we are, what we choose to believe and how we act on our beliefs.  Even if we try to tightrope our way between planes, we inevitably tilt, at times precariously, and make adjustments to regain a balanced position.

Part of that balance requires an exploration of differing perspectives and critical evaluations of our personal values.  Nonetheless, there are universally accepted rights, and wrongs, and trying to justify our own views by spouting rhetoric or professing to understand and support multiple perspectives can blur and blind us to what is just.  This calamity was eerily evident with recent Trump posts related to the events in Charlottesville, VA.  Setting aside the failings of tweets as appropriate medium for communicating with a populous, and inevitable leadership differences in public speaking styles and competencies, criticisms of his ongoing attempts to tightrope around realities to maintain balance, affirmation and political support are warranted. 

Progress happens when leaders see pathways to positive change and act on those beliefs with deliberate and measured actions.  For Trump to cite “egregious display of hatred, bigotry and violence on many sides” rather than confronting and condemning overt and deliberate public displays of hatred is dead wrong.  His public attempt to find balance demonstrates his failure to act decisively and justly on behalf of all citizens of these United States of America.  Given the nature of mass media and his very public and global soapbox position, his actions also contribute to the empowering of extremist (white supremacist, KKK… domestic and international terrorism) views by legitimizing beliefs center on hatred and discrimination. 

Trump’s need and desire to maintain his status as ruler of the sandbox is nothing new.   What is new is the potential for his actions to inspire fear, hatred and violence domestically and around the world.  Based on these most recent statements and actions, an understanding and focus on leadership for the common good is not even an afterthought. 

Thankfully, we are a democracy with a system of established checks and balances that can contribute to making things right, to helping us as a country regain a morally just balance that contributes to continued progress in human rights arenas, including equalizing educational and economic disparities.  Gradually, people are stepping up, refusing to be bullied and are taking action through boycotts and shows of strength in numbers. 

Basic human rights – fair treatment for all regardless of race, ethnicity, gender, different physical and metal abilities, sexual orientation, spiritual beliefs, political beliefs or place of birth (to include access to water, food, housing, healthcare, free speech and the right to redress grievances) – is nonnegotiable, especially in a society that professes to protect “life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.”  Still, as I have often shared with my students, fair treatment does not always mean the same treatment.  Affirmative action and consideration of race and other factors, along with academic competency, in the college selection process are examples of society trying to right past wrongs – an impossible but worthy venture. 

At the same time, it is imperative to avoid sliding in the other direction by erasing the past.  As prophesized by George Orwell in his dystopian novel Nineteen Eighty-Four (1984), it is easier for governments that continually rewrite history to control populations of people.  Published in 1949, in the wake of WW II, Orwell’s fictional government “seeks power entirely for its own sake. It is not interested in the good of others; it is interested solely in power (1984, p. 272).”  It does this by revising history, continually, while pretending that the past never happened.

All too often, the history we are taught is a history of the oppressors.  A revisionist lens is a crucial component in understanding history from multiple perspectives, including from the voices of the oppressed.  Heroes, as it turns out, are not always so heroic.   Questioning the past and bringing to light the realities of lives lived should be an integral part of our educational agenda, at all levels.  Recent protests in Oswego, NY center on replica ships that are sailing across the Great Lakes this summer.  Built and funded by the Columbus Foundation, the Niña and Pinta are sailing together as a “ as a new and enhanced ‘sailing museum’, for the purpose of educating the public and school children on the ‘caravel’, a Portuguese ship used by Christopher Columbus and many early explorers to discover the world.”  Some say the ships only tell half of a story, as is evident in some of the messages shared by protestors in late July.

The ship replicas are important tools for bringing the past alive.  The subsequent dockside and canoe protests, and the protests against hate groups in Charlottesville and elsewhere, are also crucial in redefining how and what we teach our children as we continue to foster meaningful dialogue focused on positive change.  The City of Rochester provided another rational and decisive example of how to move forward socially when they removed a controversial panel depicting racial caricatures of two African-American children from the Dentzel carousel at Ontario Beach Park.  Equally important was the decision by the City to use the panel, the past, for education.  I applaud them, and many other cities, in their handling of public conflict related to historical remnants, artifacts of our pasts that no longer reflect our redefined beliefs and goals as a nation, as Americans.

Rochester’s approach to the display of offensive historical art in public places and the peaceful and focused protests in Oswego offer valuable lessons for us all as we reflect on the anti-racist protests in Charlottesville, VA (and the aftermath of that event).  Erasing the past is impossible AND undesirable.  We need the reminders of our past to inform our future direction as a country and as a world.  There has already been enough bloodshed.  We need to speak out and act with decisive and deliberate actions against all that we know to be wrong as we continue to build toward a future free of hatred – a future for all.

D.E. Bentley

Editor, Owl Light New