Before I Continue

Cliff near Moonlight Beach in San Diego, California

When I first began writing this blog I wrote mainly about how orthodox religion is keeping us from having a society in which all may participate. I really like some of the articles I wrote—I particularly like my views on the First Amendment. But after my brother died, I wanted to write about how Americans of European heritage (Whites) are missing the ball because either we don’t see racism, we don’t want to see racism or we simply are racists. This is very bothersome to me and I don’t completely understand it. I want to live in a society that values everyone (#Black Lives Matter). I want to live in a society in which all may have equal access to the benefits and protections that are supposedly offered to all Americans.

The reality is that I live in a society where only some people have the protections and benefits of being an American. The reality is that I live in a society in which people are feeling increasingly more comfortable calling for violence, people are feeling increasingly more comfortable trying to keep others from their constitutional rights and people are feeling increasingly more comfortable showing more allegiance to a party than they do to the United States government.

Many of us do not realize where we are standing. We are standing on a cliff that is capable of breaking off at any moment plunging us downward—or burying us beneath tons of earth and rock.

The current political fight between Hillary, Trump and Bernie (and their supporters/followers) is a fight that encapsulates everything going on in America today. It is a fight of orthodox religion against liberal religion and science, of White privilege against everyone else and male vs. female. This is a fight. But it doesn’t have to be that way. We don’t have to go down that road. We don’t have to fall off the cliff.

There are three very visible people in this struggle—Hillary Clinton, Bernie Sanders and Donald Trump. The first thing to realize in all of this is that this struggle is not about those three people. This struggle is about the supporters and the followers.

Two of the three people have followers. One of the three people has supporters. I am sure that you can pick out which of the two have followers—Bernie and Trump. I am sure that you can see that Hillary has supporters. This difference is very clear, and it is very telling.

When I listen to the followers of these two people I hear the followers say that they think only their person can take our society to where we need to go. “Only Trump can save us!” “Only Bernie can save us!” The fact that no one is saying this about Hillary gives me a lot of hope.

The other thing that is telling about this election is that both Bernie and Trump are revolutionaries. Trump has upended things already--and it is anyone's guess as to how his time as president will actually look. Bernie is calling for a revolution. He want government to work again. I like what Bernie has to say. But then I look at his followers.

It’s never about the revolutionary. It’s always about the followers. Look at Hitler. Without his followers, Hitler would have just been an angry little man who hated people. With his followers, Hitler’s ideas became one of the greatest killing machines ever. So without his followers, Trump is just a man who likes to do business deals. With his followers, we are seeing cries of hatred and calls for violence. We don’t yet know what will happen if we continue on Trump’s declared path, but we can see that it won’t be anything positive.

Bernie's followers seem to be people who want social change but they are also people who think only Bernie has the ability to bring about that change. Strikingly, Bernie’s followers say that Bernie is the one who started this revolution. But this simply isn't true. Bernie’s followers want change and they want it now--and if it can't be Bernie that leads us then they are going to throw a fit.

Hillary has supporters. This is part of the reason her campaign feels so different. Hillary’s supporters do not think Hillary is our savior. Hillary’s supporters do not vilify Bernie’s followers as many of Bernie’s followers have done to her. And while we may think that we know how Hillary will act as president we won't know until she is president. Look at Lyndon Johnson. He was a man who was difficult to get along with--someone who sat on the toilet while he was having meetings. But when Lyndon Johnson was president, he embraced the Civil Rights Movement. Lyndon Johnson accomplished many things while he was president. I don't think anyone could have predicted what kind of president he was going to be. 

Our society will be able to heal--and to move forward--if we join together. We must stop fighting. We must listen to one another--and we must participate.