Entitlement

I am currently in the midst of a disagreement with a very good man, a friend who I respect deeply, over the whole Beyonce turmoil.  In particular, that the police would refuse to provide services for her shows in their municipalities.

In essence, to me, the question is what is Beyonce entitled to?  It has been asserted that she is entitled to the same protections as we would give the Klan.  Also, asserted, and I agreed with, she is entitled to express her opinion openly and without reservation.

What she is not entitled to, is that the rest of the world have no opinion or reaction to her statements.  At the heart of the disturbance in Ferguson, Baltimore, all the other recent damage, is the reaction of the local citizens to events and statements and actions/inaction on the part of others.  There was a continued drumbeat that we should understand the motivations and frustrations and underlying concerns that drove those reactions.  The message was we were not entitled, as the non-rioting, non-destructive, majority in the nation, to condemn this violence and riot.  We were not supposedly entitled to an opinion because we were not black, latino, poor, drug addicted, gang related, insert special interest here.

I assert that we are entitled to our opinion.  Everyone, regardless of melatonin, economic status, sexual orientation,  profession of faith, regardless, we are entitled to our opinion.  Simply because we do not understand or experience the motivators of others does not mean that we cannot judge and applaud or condemn them.  It is wrong to burn down half of your city, whatever your believed injustice may be.  Whatever your color, whatever your religion, it is wrong to riot in behalf of your beliefs.  This is the same principle that allows us to jail psychopaths and sociopaths that commit crimes.  You could argue that they can't help it, that they were created by events and chemistry.  However, they have responsibility for their actions, and I have responsibility to see it and call it wrong.

That is what is getting lost in our nation at the moment.  I do not have a burning platform about gay marriage.  I do not find marriage defined in the Bible in such a way that allows us to call a Hindu marriage between a man and a woman okay, but the union of a man and a man wrong.  In the eyes of God, the Bible says that neither meet the definition of marriage as laid out by God in Genesis.  However, this is a secular nation of laws premised on Judeo-Christian ethics.  That does not mean, Mr. Cruz, that our laws come from the Bible, nor that we assume what was written in 1789 is forever correct.  (This is why there are provision for how, and why 26 times, we have amended the Constitution.)  We make laws that allow a collection of faiths, beliefs and cultures, in the hopes to coexist in harmony and enjoy the fruits of liberty and the pursuit of happiness.

However, it is becoming fashionable to attach the premise of Nazism and intolerance to those that believe the Bible defines marriage as between a man and a woman.  We are beginning to assume that you are not entitled to that belief, if you are an enlightened person.  I think this is the genesis of the myth that there is a war on Christianity.  There is a war on common sense and a war on understanding of the basic underpinnings of our society and government institutions.  It comes from those that are Christian and those that are not Christian.  No one is entitled to agreement to their opinion.  You just are entitled to state it.

You are also entitled to continue to live your life, even though you have a divergent opinion.  I detest everything the skinheads and the Klan stand for.  But, they are entitled to continue to live their lives, state their opinions, as long as they do not violate the laws of the land to bring those opinions to life.

Kind of wandering here, but there is a thread.  You don't get to express your opinion, and then call into question the basic worth and humanity of those who disagree with you.  That is not what you are entitled to in the Constitution.  Of all the things the Founders would find offensive about Ted Cruz, Donald Trump, Hillary Clinton and Barak Obama, that demonizing strain that they are all infected with would frustrate them most.  They had it as well, and they acted on it.  Look up Alexander Hamilton, he got shot over what amounts to a political disagreement with a man that served as Vice President of these here United States.

We feel entitled to justification of our opinion.  Especially if we listen to the uninformed and inciting voices in the media that thrive on unrest.  We feel like others have to honor and understand and congratulate us for our opinions.  That is just not what the Constitution provides.  It provides that you may say it, believe it, relate it, and hold it dear.  What is unsaid, is God help you if you do profess craziness publicly.  The Founders relied on healthy and hearty public debate to rein in the worst excesses of lunacy.  They saw it everyday and accepted it as the only way to ensure healthy democracy.  You are expected to actively and principally disagree, as part of the price of your citizenship.

We are not entitled to be told our opinion is okay, because we are black.  We are not expected to not have an opinion about a statement a white person makes, because we are black.  That is generally accepted and what is generating Sharpton and Jackson's income.  What is less generally accepted and protected today, is that you can have an opinion about a black person's statement if you are white.  The message is that, that is just racist.  You, white person, could not possibly understand, that is why I get to use the word nigger and you don't.  Because.

It is immaterial if there is understanding.  Opinion is opinion.  Everyone has one, just like something else everyone has.  What is being lost is the understanding that there are consequences and outcomes of our statements and opinions.  This is the system the Founders relied upon to prevent the Donald's and the Hillary's of the nation from gaining unlimited power.  It works, or at least used to work.  Now, there is this false narrative that you can say almost anything if you are black or another minority, and any push back from someone that is white can be dismissed as racist.  It makes many people afraid to say anything.

That laziness of conviction has allowed our minority communities in crisis, and our white impoverished communities to become politically naive and uninformed.  The HipHop lifestyle that celebrates thug life, get it how you get it, reinforces that if you hustle, it should come to you.  It is a lie, and a shrewd one that I cannot tell the origin.  I don't know if it is from the racial dissent leaders that use it to drive a wedge between races, "they owe you because," or from the establishment majority "we will give it to you."  Either way, that they continue to accept it is crippling our national discourse and reinforcing a spiral into violence and chaos most inflamed in our urban populations.  Flint is on the shoulders of the citizens of Flint, they let their community become so bad that the state was justified in assuming control.  The poisioning crime is on the governor, but the causation is on the citizens and their lack of responsibility.

What happened to Michael Brown, the criminal that was killed in Ferguson, was wrong.  HE should not have attacked that cop and tried to take his gun.  It was wrong, but if you say that, and you are white, you are just racist.  Could the cop have done something different, or should he?  We will never know, because we threw away discourse and discussion with the first brick through a window.

What happened to Tamir Rice, the kid in Cleveland shot for having a very real looking toy gun, was wrong.  The cops should have tazed him, or at least attempted something other than shooting him less than 10 seconds into the conversation.  However, the video shows him going for his waistband, and the cop wants to go home to his family.  There is room for discussion here.  But, if you point that out, you are racist.  If you believe he was murdered, you hate cops.  If you believe the cops were justified, you hate black people, black children in particular.  You can't just be unsure, because it is murky and there is tons of wrong on both sides, including the parents.  That is not how the game works anymore.

The guy that got shot in the back 10 times in South Carolina, he was murdered.  However, if you say that, and you are black, it is considered by many to be racist.  I think that is criminal.  If that video surfaced of a confrontation that did not include a badge on one of the participants, or was two white people or two black people, it would be slam dunk evidence for a death penalty conviction.  Cold blooded, purposeful murder.  But, this is where we are, that it is not able to be discussed with evidence and logic.  It is not new, but it is sad it is this entrenched, 226 years into the Constitution.

You are entitled to the fruits of your opinion.  If you want to show the crack of your ass while wearing lingerie designed to pretend to honor the Black Panthers, you are going to get comment.  It is not racist, even if the person making the claim is white, to point out that it is hypocritical to arrive in a police escort, reminiscent of a Presidential motorcade, have half a batallion of state troopers doing personal body security, and then rely on the same motorcade to get away from the unwashed masses, to do a show that you proclaim decries the excesses of police violence.  It is not racist, even if you are white, to dishonor the choice to celebrate the Black Panthers.  Because you are black does not give you the right to publicly proclaim the virtues of a violent racial extremist group responsible for more murder and mayhem in the black community than the white, and not get called out for it.

As a white man, if I were to show up somewhere in a white sheet and hood and perform a show to show honor to the virtues of the Klan, I would be foolish to expect that people would excuse it because I am white.  It is ridiculous to expect that.  But, the public mood today is that this logic does not go both ways, black folks are entitled to a different standard of public discourse, a different standard of opportunity, a different expectation, a different level of available resource.  I think that is the root of the problem.  And it goes both ways.  Black, latinos, asians, not entitled to anything because of their color or culture.  Gays are not to be excluded from institutions because of their orientation.

It is the same argument, and the same issue.  The reason we can't get past it as a nation is that we are unwilling to give up our own entitlement fantasies.  We are entitled to keep people of the same sex from getting married, because of what we believe.  We are entitled to money from the government because 150 years ago, folks we probably were not related to, were slaves.  But, those other folks, they should not be entitled.  Debate is good, and the Founders relied upon it.  But, circular debate for 50 years is bad, and we can no longer accept it.

It is not that complex, but it is oh so hard.  You have to be willing to stand up and make a claim.  You have to accept that others won't agree with it.  You have to be able to hear that, and weigh it to see if perhaps those other voices are right.  I think that Beyonce is entitled to do what she did.  Nothing wrong in expressing your opinion.  What is wrong is the expectation that it does not have consequences, and that push back and dissent cannot be right.  Regardless of color, stupid is as stupid does.

And, that is all I have to say about that.

GLYASDI