Problem still not solved

Well they may take down the confederate flag in South Carolina. A young man will go to jail for heinous crimes.

Many families in South Carolina have lost their love ones doing what gives them the most peace, being at prayer.

The whole nation is talking about racism. And I have avoided blogging about it. To tell the truth I have been uncomfortable with what to say. There is so much being said and would anything I say matter.

I was listening to the radio this evening for a few minutes driving to the store and the radio host* did say some pretty good things in my opinion. He was talking mainly about the flag situation and was pretty upset quoting people that said “the flag has become a problem” the use of the phrase “has become” became one of his main points. The flag has always been a problem, it just didn’t become a problem.

And he is right. We can’t keep saying a problem has developed every time there is a race incident. This is a problem we haven’t been able to overcome. Do I have any solutions? I wish I did, but there are no magic wands, this is decades if not centuries old now and it will not go away if we put this young man to death or sentence him to life in prison. As regular readers know I always say it will take two or three generations to overcome this if we start today actually trying to do something about it. My solutions I usually offer are general, but they are a starting point and that is true education of our youth and true opportunity for all. This is just a starting point. And I cannot tell you exactly where this fits into generating that beginning.

Our country’s racism is deep rooted. One item I am confused about is how big of a problem is it. Many stats are bantered around, but I do not think anyone has a true grasp. And we probably won’t know till we start truly looking at our self as a nation in the eye and say this has got to stop. No matter the noise right now I am fearful we have not come to this point yet.

Going back to the radio host one of his other points was it took 9 people being shot in a CHURCH, not on the street for people to really come out and say how heinous this crime. I agree this is a valid point. White Christians have to come to grip with how Christian they are right now.

So I know I have not added anything new to the discussion, but the radio host did shake me up a bit and I am thankful to him. I wish I could add something new, make some statement that would spur constructive action to begin to not heal, but actually cure this horrible cancer on our society. Yet tomorrow or next week another headline will distract many of us away from this crime and the potential it could bring to us to start curing the disease. Let’s hope I am wrong and some of our more visible politicians will actually become leaders and start us down the right path.

Just like Nixon going to China, we need a major conservative politician to step up and call out the racists and right wing in our country and denounce them publicly so others have the courage to help begin this fight.

*I did not get the name of the person speaking, I was only in the car a few minutes, but it was ESPN radio and I think it was a national show. This was on Monday night 06/22.

And I feel this whole post is cliché as heck. I struggle writing on certain topics. Yet I feel I cannot sit on the sidelines either. To be silent is to acquiesce