On the problems between differences (in America)

I'm missed a couple of Sepia Saturdays...sorry about that. I'll be reading what you all composed.  In case you missed it (easy to do) I had a heart attack a week or so ago, and spent 5 days in the hospital. Now I've been home a week, and am slowly getting back into some kind of routine. Being alive still is the name of my game. I don't seem to have many physical limitations, beyond low stamina.

Now let's see what SS has to make me dig into archives to share...

Bread and Roses 1912-2012

6 hrs · 

On May 28, 1963, the Woolworth sit-in took place in Jackson, MS. "This was the most violently attacked sit-in during the 1960s. A huge mob gathered, with open police support while the three of us sat there for three hours. I was attacked with fists, brass knuckles, and the broken portions of glass sugar containers, and was burned with cigarettes." -- John Salter, seated in photo with Joan Trumpauer Mulholland and Anne Moody (author of Coming of Age in Mississippi). Photo: Fred Blackwell

The ongoing racism that is flashing now in Mineapolis with the recent police-caused death of George Floyd...it just continues. It's called racism.

But it's part of the hateful attitude that is separating people from each other, which focuses on differences and then is fed by determined people who want to feel better about their identity by blaming any problems they may have on a different kind of people.

I kid you not. It's not just between races. It's between those who have more and those who have less.  Lack of tolerance exists between neighborhoods, or clubs, or especially sporting teams and rival schools. It represents the differences in political parties, as well as those with different ancestral roots.  It's also the basis for many wars between different political divisions called countries. These are the invisible areas that create borders along the ground, which are sometimes fenced off, and sometimes just invisible no-man's-land.

Being angry, and unhappy, and then having these emotions spread into daily life...into violence. An awful situation. What is fair and legal is pushed with that anger into breaking the law.

Only love defeats hate (Dr. Martin Luther King.) Think for a moment of someone you disagree with completely, maybe someone who is powerful and hateful themselves.  And then think of how you might someday be able to forgive that person/persons. This is the challenge of love. It takes imagination for me to even consider someday finding forgiveness for the awful hateful people in our lives today.

Here's a link to a great article on racism in America today, published May 28, 2020. 

"They Too Are America" by Karen Leslie Hernandez 

The daily TV news is focusing on the violence and what they consider worthy of attention, not the many leaders who are working to find justice and a peaceful answer to the situation of George Floyd's death at the hands of a white policeman.

And I'm sharing my post back to Sepia Saturday this week!

How about a quote:

“Spirituality is recognizing and celebrating that we are all inextricably connected to each other by a power greater than all of us, and that our connection to that power and to one another is grounded in love and compassion. Practicing spirituality brings a sense of perspective, meaning and purpose to our lives.”
Brene' Brown