What is going on in the world of "making a point"? Are the current organized marches the sign of our times? They seem to be mostly peaceful and maybe we should rejoice that people are expressing themselves without violence for a change. Sometimes I admit that listening to the news it is difficult to know if there is a real reason, but surely those involved must know and probably used social media -- Facebook or other sites -- to organize the group, so surely they gave a reason.
There are days when it is hard to know just what constitutes the "new normal." Maybe the season has something to do with it. If a march or demonstration is done in warmer weather, it starts peacefully and turns into a riot with looting and destroying cars or buildings with fire. Maybe the use of fire hoses in crowd control is more effective in the cold weather months. It is really difficult to know how many of the efforts to "point out a problem" lose their emphasis when the effort gets out of control and ends up in a riot.
When groups of people with an uncommon background get together for a purpose, it is not always bad. Every day people go to work with a common goal of supporting their families and contributing to their employer. There is nothing wrong with that, but when those same people find fault with the company and resort to picketing, the picture looks much different. Only the purpose has changed and their ethnic background, color or religion is not important.
As a nation, we look to our constitution for protection when we feel grieved by a condition. If our cause seems just to us, we feel we are allowed to express our dissatisfaction publicly. I doubt that any of us would want to give up the freedom to do just that. What bothers me about what I have observed here in the relative safety of northwest Arkansas is too frequently one's display of displeasure creates a hardship for people not involved in the display of displeasure. When a person's business is burned or their car destroyed, they have an equally important grievance against those showing their unhappiness. When a police officer is shot in an inner city performance of his or her duties, has the family of the shooter not been aware of the activities that led to the incident? No one gains anything in that situation. The shooter will go to jail, the family of the deceased officer will bury the loved one, the news media will take sides and probably distort the truth and the world outside the inner city goes on as before.
I'm not a social scientist nor a case worker or an employee of a government agency that deals with our social ills. I am a simple person who watches the news once in a while and can't understand where all of this is going to lead us. We can't blame Donald Trump for every ill we find in the United States much less the world. We, as individuals, can do very little about ISIS or the immigrant problem in Europe. We could, with a little bit of common sense and self-control, improve the direction of our immediate area. We can take better care of the sick and unemployed in our area through the agencies designed to do that and we can be more active in our school boards, city government and church.
If we are serious about where our nation is going, we can get much more aware of where our political parties are leading us and those we elect at various levels of our government. There are in fact many things we could do to slow the slide of our nation and ourselves into an undesirable state of selfishness and complacency. We would need to turn off the television every time some horror movie or violence filled show came on and call or write our cable or satellite provider. We could write frequent letters to our newspapers and elected officials and let them know we are unhappy with the direction of our nation and actually expect a meaningful response.
None of that is easy. After 80 years of trying to understand and seeing so much corruption and self-serving in government, I have found the one thing that seems to fit where I am. Talking to the GOD I worship and seeking HIS direction makes more sense than any news channel on my television set or any movie Hollywood has to offer. And, to paraphrase Joshua in the 24th chapter of his Old Testament writing (verse 15); "as for me and my house, we will get our direction from the Lord."
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Editor"s note: Leo Lynch, an award-winning columnist, is a native of Benton County has deep roots in northwest Arkansas. He is a retired industrial engineer and former Justice of the Peace. He can be contacted at [email protected].
Editorial on 02/01/2017