Community Voices: We can't tolerate hate, mindless aggression
By MICHAEL CARIKER - a Bakersfield resident.
I am a child of the 60s. I came of age in the time of change in our country. Citizens were coming to realize that they had a voice.
Both old and young began to be aware that their voices could bring about change — real, meaningful and righteous change in our nation.
We brought a needless, unjust war to a halt. We began to work toward equal rights and benefits for women in the workplace. We marched and demonstrated so that people, all people, would be able to secure the basic rights guaranteed to them by our Constitution. We listened to the voices of change and conscience, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., Rosa Parks, Malcom X, Medgar Evers, Cesar Chavez, Delores Huerta and many more.
And, because of their voices, people were beaten. People were jailed. They were called traitors, agitators, scum. But these voices would not be silenced. They continued the good fight. They got into what John Lewis would have called "good trouble."
Some gave their very lives for that cause. I remember that terrible day in April 1968 when King was shot and killed in Memphis, Tennessee. None of us could believe it. Yet, there were some in this country who rejoiced. "He got what he deserved," they said.
In the years that followed, great strides were made. And, some weren't. It is particularly distressing to witness that after 50-plus years, the struggle still continues. Governments — federal, state and local — are still trying to keep some people "in their place."
Donald Trump, Marjorie Taylor Greene, Lauren Boebert, Paul Gosar, Madison Cawthorn, Josh Hawley, Ted Cruz and even our own Kevin McCarthy are doing whatever they can to try and take us back to 1959. Cars were made of chrome and steel. Gasoline was 25 cents a gallon. Detroit was at the very top of the mechanized universe. People of color knew their place. They speak to loud, adoring crowds of middle-class working white folk and senior citizens. They tell them what is wrong. They tell them who to blame. Then, they make them afraid. People always end up hating that which they fear. Whether the "boogeymen" are African-American, Latino, Asian, Middle-Eastern, Jewish or Muslim, the purveyors of hate and fear will always find someone to blame. Someone to be afraid of; someone to fight.
In the 60s, freedom busses were firebombed. Demonstrators faced police using dogs, clubs, handcuffs and firehoses. Civil rights workers were shot and killed for just registering people to vote. Right here in the "Land of the free and the home of the brave." It is happening again: Charleston, South Carolina; Laredo, Texas; Buffalo, New York. White men with semi-automatic weapons are targeting people of color. No one does anything. Oh, they wring their hands. They decry the violence. They offer up their "heartfelt thoughts and prayers." Then they wonder, "What's for dinner?" We do nothing.
There is an evil in our country. We all know about it, we fear it. We do nothing about it. We just keep electing the same useless politicians over and over again. We keep hoping something will change. But, it doesn't.
Yes, there is evil in our nation — hate, bigotry, greed and violence. But there is a much greater evil than these. It is the indifference of good men and women They know things are bad but feel that there is nothing that they can or want to do about them. As long as the majority of us feel that way, nothing will get done. Nothing will change. Voters of color will be denied their basic constitutional rights. Women will be told that they have no control over their own bodies. People will be told who to love and marry. Children of color will be told they are undeserving and not good enough.
We need to find our voices again. We need to let all our citizens and the rest of the world know that we will not tolerate hate and mindless aggression. That we really do care about our fellow men, women and children. We must get out and show the better angels of our nature. We have to realize that the answers are not just "Blowing in the wind."
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