I’m starting this blog as an attempt to control my rants. I’m becoming more aware of how toxic and futile they are, I actually feel worse when the moment surpasses and slightly foolish. Theres this theory that “getting it off your chest” will make you feel better, but my tyrannic tirades only intensifies my anger.
My latest diatribe was sparked by Marjorie Taylor Greene’s latest social media antic. Greene recently won the republican congressional nomination for the US house seat in Georgia. After such a victory, you would think that this “ all American girl” would use her platform to speak on one of the many topics that are dominating 2020 such as COVID-19, but that wasn’t the case. Instead, with 60 days before the election, Marjorie took to her socials and posted a photoshopped picture of her holding an assault rifle alongside “the squad” a group of four minority women elected in the 2018 United States House of Representatives elections, made up of Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez of New York, Ilhan Omar of Minnesota, Ayanna Pressley of Massachusetts, and Rashida Tlaib of Michigan who are now receiving death threats. Facebook actually removed the image because it incited violence.
The bigots who took the time out of their busy schedules to write curses over those women’s lives are not the only ones who were conflicted. I too had a violent reaction, an internal one. The rage that poured into my spirit quickly took over and before I knew it, I was screaming at the phone to one of the calmest spirits I’ve had the honor of encountering. Her silence brought me back to the present and the embarrassment began to replace the anger.
The thing is, I know better. For the past 2 years, this has been my battlefield. I am at war with my own self, as is the rest of mankind. Yet, we all possess this extraordinary ability of finding an excuse to release the beast. In the words of my ancestors, “ If it ain’t one thing, it’s another.”
The dilemma I currently face as a young black man In America is that it seems like the enemy is all around me. I’m surrounded, 360s of chaos. In my own neighborhood, it’s black on black crime and police. If I move to a more upscale environment, its undercover racist.....and the police. There appears to be no safe haven on this planet for my kind. Living in this space is extremely difficult when you are on a quest for personal growth. You’re so focused on the obvious opponents, you become blind to your arch nemesis, yourself.
The ability to see yourself is the most powerful weapon one can yield in this lifetime. If I constantly blame others for my dysfunctional behavior, how could I possibly see myself? Today, it’s Marjorie, tomorrow, number 45 himself. The reality of the situation is we live in an era full of hate, the main cause for this emotion is confusion. What is the main cause of this you ask? That’s easy, a lack of awareness.
According to the Bible, we are not fighting the flesh but spirits in high and low places, I agree. We are so busy searching these high and low places for demonic entities when they are right under our noses. Our own egos have created a world of division, It’s all around us. Democrats vs republicans, conservatives vs liberals, crips vs bloods, iPhone vs Galaxy, Cardi B vs Nicki Minaj. I’ve seen elderly men physically fight because they were fans of opposing teams. We’ve become so accustomed to these traditions that we can’t tell the difference between our friends and our enemies, we treat them both the same.
If awareness is our strongest tool, division is the enemy’s. The mythical Willie lynch letters has an enormous presence in 2020. Old vs young, men vs women, it’s all the same. This presidential race has been nothing short of a WWE story line, full of protagonist and Antagonist, good vs evil. This country is well on its way to a civil war.
Ironically, both sides speak a message of unity. Ask yourself this, what is definite in this world? Christians can’t even agree on how to properly worship and they’re all reading from the same book (I think). Oddly enough, If you go to Mrs. Greene’s twitter page, Christian is in her bio. As I sit here, I ponder on if her beliefs convict her spirit enough for her to take the thorn out of her own eye and realize that the people who now have to deal with death threats are human beings just like her. I pray that my spirit allows me to do the same.
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