Just another face of evil...

One more blatant slap in the face today from the news about this white supremacist sicko who fatally shot 6 people in a Sikh Temple in Wisconsin. At least the authorities this time took out the perpetrator with a dose of his own medicine. I`m sure many institutions will once again be calling for banning guns and all other sorts of useless legal reactions to this hideous crime. My answer to that would be...I thought we outlawed racism and bigotry in America a long time ago, yet millions are still living in that frame of mind.

It seems to me it is about time the human race got down to some serious reprogramming about origins of evil and understanding racism. Most rational, educated people are going to understand and embrace difference and diversity in how various customs and cultures develop over thousands of years. Our melting pot culture of the last 120 years SHOULD understand and accept the rainbow of color and perspectives by now. Yet somehow, illiterate crazy people are coming up in relatively educated countries like ours who have no perspective or rational sense about the world at large. From crib to grave, these types of people stay in their pea-brained, embryonic state of infantile dysfunction where life is ¨all about me and my ego needs¨ versus having any understanding of other people or historic cultures. The sense of insecurity and outright hate for people different than ourselves is totally irrational and unacceptable in any civilization...even the Western one. The USA needs some serious introspection about what it is that spawns so many racially divided, non-inclusive mentalities whereby ¨white people¨...or people of ANY particular shade or color...would think they have supremacy over another race or creed. Are we not tired of this routine yet? It is quite obvious to me we have hardly evolved as humans since the founding of our once great country.

I would like to think that this sicko face of evil is an anomaly...an aberration from normality. Yet, as I go about my daily life, I am amazed by how many racial jokes and intolerant statements I hear about various races or religions. Even though I have fortunately grown away from organized religion, I still have to understand and accept the fact that a large majority of humans are religious by nature and upbringing. Since we are capable of so much thinking and rationalization...we have to come up with beliefs that answer the unanswerable, even if there is little substance to our beliefs. I am convinced we do this primarily because our egos do not allow us to live comfortably with ¨I don´t know¨. And then, when OTHER people come up with more rational, scientific ways of looking at big picture questions...it is just too threatening and defeating to admit we may be wrong. The reaction is HYPER dogmatism and escaping reality into circles of hate and fear such as this madman probably came from.

I think racism and religion are closely connected. People that hold racist views often hold religious ones as well. Most of the major religions are built around race and culture...and are divided by race and culture as well. This is not a criticism...just a fact.

In Judaism, you have two main traditions, Sephardi and Ashkenazi. These traditions are basically divided down racial lines.

In Christianity you have various divisions that are bred in different racial concepts. Most churches are made up of white, black, Hispanic or Asian segregated churches. Even in the melting pot which is the USA, you see very few truly integrated churches. If they believe in the same God, the same Jesus...why the racial divide? People of faith really need to do some introspection on this one in my opinion. The silence and hypocrisy is deafening to many unbelievers.

With Islam, the Sunni make up a large majority of the followers while the Shia are from a different cultural background for the most part.

I bring this up because I believe that whatever doesn't unite us divides us. My background is plenty full of the things that divide us...and religion is one of the BIGGEST dividers. I don´t believe God is behind this kind of division...and if he were I am not sure I could go along with him in good conscience. (please take this as intended...tongue in cheek)

I am still trying to figure out where this institutionalized evil comes from. The roots are long and deep apparently.

I am not saying it is abnormal to want to be with people of your own race or culture. In fact...what I am saying is that it IS normal and should be expected behavior. Yet...what I DON`T accept as normal is this seemingly vast acceptance of racism and mentality that everyone else is inferior to ¨us¨. Where does this attitude and pressure come from that somehow ¨our race¨ has to be superior or preferred over others? Where does the societal attitude come from that looks down on interracial couples and their children? Where does the narcism and ego come from that has us continually comparing ourselves with other races? The stereotypes are huge...and they lie.

I have lived long enough to see some poor people justify their poverty and make it out to be preferable over being rich...EVIL. I have lived long enough to see rich people guilt tripped about their riches to the extent where they gave all they had to some government or church who would protect them or promised them ¨eternal life¨...EVIL. I have lived long enough to see governments funded by the people turn their courts and armies against the freewill and sovereignty of those who gave them office...EVIL. I now live a life of quiet desperation pondering the question ¨how shall we then live¨?

I guess I will have to be content to be contrarily minded and dispel evil with my traditional songs of the 70s such as ¨Puff the Magic Dragon¨, ¨We Shall Overcome¨, ¨If I had a Hammer¨ and ¨I`d Like To Teach The World To Sing¨. I am real tired of these ugly white supremacist types being the ¨poster people¨ for my country.