(08-28-2017, 05:10 PM)jagibelieve Wrote: [ -> ]snip
Ok, now for a younger person's reply. I'm 34. Or 33. Maybe 32. I really have a hard time remembering which shoe goes on what foot these days, so the math involved in figuring that out is beyond me. Regardless, I am an early millennial. I know you weren't intending to call out a generation, but that's kind of what it looks like you did.
Personally, I hate the term millennial, because I'm one only by the misfortune of having been born a couple of years too late. I blame my parents for waiting seven years to pop out a child instead of four. Either way, I dislike the connotation that the term carries, and I resent that I'm grouped in with that bunch. It's like being the guy who was legit just trying to head down to the corner store for a six pack and ended up in a picture with the neo-Nazis and their adorable little tiki torches, then woke up the next morning to find that his job was gone, his girlfriend packed up and left, his family had disowned him and a random Chinaman had pissed on his rug.
Moving right along, what you see as a country destroying itself I see as a country reinventing itself. You might not like what it's becoming, and you may be surprised to hear that I don't. There are a few sides to that. One, of course, is the culture that allowed a President who stops just short of openly endorsing white supremacy to take office and remain there. My thoughts there are pretty well known. Needless to say, the sooner a North Korean missile accidentally knocks the space station out of orbit and it lands on that rug of his, the better off we'll all be.
I too was part of an institution that attempted to instill certain morals and whatever in me. It was an atrocious experience, as my family was very involved and I got to see firsthand how hateful the group of people pulling the strings really were. It prompted me to expand my horizons, research, read, so some basic study of other institutions and come to a place I'm happy with. I think I'm all the better for having been exposed to it, but not for the reasons you're getting at.
I also grew up reciting the Pledge, but following the Pledge, our school principal, whose face was on every TV in the school in the mornings, would have us remain standing for a moment of silence. I spoke with my history teacher and explained my objection, then told her I would be taking my seat for the moment of silence. She understood, and we agreed that as long as I stood for the Pledge, I could sit respectfully and quietly during the moment of silence. A few classmates asked me why I was sitting, and you know what? No riots happened. No one threatened anyone's life on Twitter, probably because Twitter was still quite a few years in the future, but a few dialogues were started. To be perfectly blunt, my greatest regret from high school was not having it in me the day the assistant principal was in our classroom for the Pledge to sit down right in front of him. I chickened out and showed great disrespect to my history teacher. There was a reason: this was a week or so before graduation, and I'd already been in trouble with the principal recently enough for something else. I wanted to walk more than I wanted to sit. Moral of that story: sitting for a moment of silence isn't disrespectful of whatever one was intended to do with that silence, and kneeling for the national anthem is not disrespectful of the anthem. Being loud, making gestures, causing a scene, riding an exercise bike, walking back to your seat with two beers in each hand, that's disrespectful. Silently kneeling is a way of respecting the anthem and starting a dialogue that begins with, "Hey, Colin, why'd you kneel?".
The banning of certain books from school libraries is a despicable practice. Altering those books to remove the "offensive" words is a dangerous one.
Societies evolve. In the 1860s, the thought of black people and white people being equals was unheard of. In the 1930s, the thought of a black man marrying a white woman was violently offensive. In the 1950s, homosexuality was outright illegal almost nationwide. Marijuana is coming back into play because it's no more harmful for you than alcohol (and really much less harmful than tobacco, which people in the 1920s used constantly) but is being shown to have actual health benefits. No one credible is arguing that heroin or meth are safe and should be used. The concept of transgender isn't fully understood, but who's to say that being transgender is any different a concept than being gay, which almost everyone accepts now? This nation is becoming more tolerant in many ways, and that's good.
What's not good is that the current generation is using "tolerance" as a veil for creating and spreading their own brand of intolerance. Revising history is a dark, dangerous road to go down. Moving Confederate monuments to private grounds is ok. Burying them in basements, defacing or destroying them as they stand is not. You don't have to think a certain way about life, the universe and stuff, but to censure or ridicule someone purely because they think one way and you think another isn't acceptable. It's certainly not ok when the talking heads that this generation look up to make a point of deriding certain ways of thinking as often as they can. And this all applies to everyone along all facets of the political landscape.
What comforts me in all this is that America will emerge all the better from this. We always do. This is a period of great reflection and great learning for America. This is the millennials figuring out who we are. Unfortunately, it's coming by way of incendiary leaders like Trump and Sanders, and people like Clinton who have taught us all not to trust anyone. It's a messy country right now, but it's our country to fix, and I do hope you're on your porch shouting at kids long enough to be a part of it and see the end result.
...grandpa