Sunday, April 06, 2008

Looking Foward To A Better Week

Last night I watch some of the CNN special on Martin Luther King. It was interesting seeing what America was like not that long ago. It’s a shame that in some ways we haven’t come very far.

I would celebrate my 4th birthday in July of 1968. It would be another 5 years before I would see a black person other than watching them on TV. It may seem kind of strange to some, but that’s what rural Iowa was and is like.

People fear what they don’t know. I ran into that kind of thinking this week at work. Debbie (I’ll call her) is a coworker of mine. She’s 62 years old and considers herself a person of deep faith. She is a stanch Republican and told me that she only watches FOX news and listens to Rush Limbaugh. She is a very helpful and generous person most of the time. Sometimes this conflixs with some of the things she has to say. Often she will throw out some catch fraise used by one of the talking heads from the right wing. This leads to some heated exchanges from not only me, but other people in the department.

Wednesday, she brought up the subject of Rev. Jeremiah Wright and the controversy about some of the things he said. I have to admit that I wasn’t really up on the whole issue. Partly because I haven’t been feeling the best, and the other thing is I try not to get too upset about things until I know more about them. In this case, I was uneducated about what he had or hadn’t said. I asked what exactly he said that upset her? Of course she couldn’t tell me what was said. I told her she should go to You Tube and listen to his speech before making decisions on the subject. She said she had heard the eight or so statements he had made and that was all she needed to know. He was Anti-American and she wasn’t going to vote for him (meaning Obama). Obama said he didn’t believe in those statements, I said. Then she said, “If Obama is elected there is going to be a race war.” I almost fell on the floor after hearing that! She said that’s what the blacks believe. I asked her how she new what all blacks believe and if she believed the same thing as every white person believes? Unfortunately, we were interrupted and the conversation ended. I never got an answer from her. Not that the answer would have made any sense anyway.

All I could think about that day was how amazing it is that we have to talk about this in 2008. That people still think that way. Even with all the changes in our society since the death of Dr. King. Debbie still sees people as groups of them verses us and doesn’t take into account that we are all human and have different opinions. I don’t understand it. She is well traveled and works with people of all different races and backgrounds. She doesn’t seem to have a problem working with anyone. Why is there a blockage of thought when it comes to issues of race? Is it because we tend to separate each other into categories? Is it because of what she listens to on the news and radio and her deep faith, as she calls it? It’s puzzling to me.

I believe I have grown a lot since I came out of the closet many years ago. I think about my prejudice sometimes. I work on not lumping people together. That comes from the fact that we see people lump all gay people together. It’s disturbing to see people misuse Bible scripture to justify discrimination. It’s an old trick to pull things out of contexts. We surround ourselves with friends that except us and we forget about the people don’t.

It would be easy to dismiss what Debbie had said if not for the next day I read an article in the Cedar Rapids Gazette.


CEDAR RAPIDS — An audit of 39 property management companies in Cedar Rapids found that 29 of them discriminated between black and white applicants.


I have often felt that Cedar Rapids has a problem with race, mostly since I moved into my neighborhood almost six years ago. Local people use the words like “The Hood” to describe the area or they refer to our local grocery store as “Ghetto Hy-vee” instead of the 1st Avenue Store. I often correct people when they make those statements, but I continue to hear it all the time. They perpetuate the prejudice by tell new people in town that they should avoid buying or living in certain areas. One engineer at work was told that you should buy anything on any side of town but avoid the SE side. It’s funny that some of the wealthiest people in town live in SE Cedar Rapids. What they are really saying is stay away from an area with minorities. Cedar Rapids is prodomitaly white and has a low crime rate compared to other cities of its size. What is their fear based on?

I hope that this year the election will open our eyes to the work we have ahead of us. Are we really willing to change and elect a woman or a black man as president? The policy differences are clear. We have one side looking towards the future to what America should be and can be. The other side is trying to hold us back and to conserve the past that at times have not been good for everyone. I’m optimistic that we can move forward. It has been depressing the last 7 years watching this country make the mistakes it has made and stagnating to the degree it has. My hope is that Martin Luther King’s dream is still alive and that we will continue to make and enforce the laws to protect ALL people in America. What I can do is keep speaking up when I hear people saying things that are divisive and discrimitory and try to keep myself in check.



And I've seen the promised land. I may not get there with you. But I want you to know tonight, that we, as a people, will get to the promised land. And I'm happy, tonight. I'm not worried about anything. I'm not fearing any man. Mine eyes have seen the glory of the coming of the Lord.

-Martin Luther King-

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