People fail to get along because they fear each other; they fear each other because they don’t know each other; they don’t know each other because they have not communicated with each other.”
Martin Luther King
Dear Grandkids:
You are living in a wonderful country (U.S.A.) that has been fortunate with countless advantages and cursed with an appalling legacy. Our model democracy has been replicated by many countries and our natural resources are lifegiving and plentiful. You are lucky to have benefits that most of the world’s population doesn’t have.
With all these benefits, there is a dark side that must be addressed in order for the United States to achieve the vision set forth in its constitution to achieve a “more perfect union.” The legacy of slavery established some 400 years ago, lives with us in it more modern form of a caste system. This legacy might be considered our country’s “original sin.”
By almost any measure, equality and fairness have progressed since I was growing up in the 1940s and 1950s. But the unequal treatment and fear of people based upon skin pigmentation continues to be unrecognized and ignored by large segments of our population. It will ultimately be up to your generation to address the fundamental flaws that my generation perpetuated.
“So, grandpa, what does that mean? What can I do in order to make our country better?”
1. Get to know your generation’s diverse population
You now live within a personal “tent,” a tent that is a small, exclusive society with friends that look alike and have similar cultures. My plea is for you to get outside your tent as often as possible and have friends who are different than you: languages, foods, religions, skin shades, and nationalities. Your life will be enriched a hundred-fold if you do this.
Travel on your own to international countries, to places that are totally unfamiliar, and meet the native populations. Talk, listen, discuss, and explore the differences and the similarities. Sure, this will be scary, but take a few risks. You will also learn a lot about yourself and your place in this wonderful world. Challenge the fear of the unfamiliar.
“Could a greater miracle take place than for us to look through each other’s eyes for an instant?”
Henry David Thoreau
2. Seek a better understanding of United States and world history
The United States history is a beautiful story told from the perspective of many different writers and historians. Don’t settle on just one perspective. Hear it from the victims, the oppressed, as well as the victors. Get it from the native Americans, the Blacks, the Hispanics, and the Asians. Yes, our history has had a dark side, but you need to be educated in a holistic way.
How to find this history? Biographies, documentaries, and historical fiction. Yes, classic novels set in different countries and time periods sometimes gives a better feel for the times than numbers and dates.
3. Become familiar with the governing process at all levels
In order for civilization to function in a positive, productive, and progressive way, our representative governing process must have an informed public. We have a republic, not just a democracy. We express our opinions via the voting process and by authorizing our representatives to make decisions on our behalf.
Each state, county, and city has its own governing structures and procedures modeled on the federal structure but adapted to the more local levels. Regardless of the governing level, safeguards of “checks and balances” are intended to assure honesty and faithfulness to the constitution and basic human rights.
Since the implementation of the governing process is accomplished by human beings (sometimes with their own self-serving agendas or ignorance), just and equal treatment regardless of race, nationality, gender, etc. is not always the reality that was intended. Transgressions do occur on all levels and it becomes your ethical and moral responsibility to speak out and take action.
4. Face the number one problem in the United States
I have concluded that the foremost problem that we face in our beloved country is our “original sin” of racism. You were born with “pigment privilege,” a privilege that your generation’s minority brothers and sisters don’t have. Darker skin should not relegate people to a lower standing in a hierarchical country, but that has been, is, and will be the historical truth. Until that is recognized and acknowledged, the country’s hypocrisy will shamefully endure.
“The life of a nation is secure only while the nation is honest, truthful, and virtuous.”
Frederick Douglass
My generation has largely ignored this original sin but instead has blamed the victims. The one thing that we have accomplished is to expose the crime and inhumanity to our vulnerable 2nd class citizens in the most graphic and demonstrably way via videos that make it impossible to deny.
“But grandpa, why did your generation perpetuate this racism?”
Many of us have a great fear, a fear of the unfamiliar. Few of us white people really know dark skinned people and therefore cannot see the world through their eyes. We only know them through the 1940s’ and 1950s’ movies, history books, magazines, and newspapers. Even today, local newspapers disproportionately show pictures of crimes being committed by “them.” Our prisons have a preponderance of dark skins. What if “they” become more of the population than people like us? But most of us are satisfied by ignoring that a problem exists at all.
The good news
You are the future. Grandkids hold the keys to advancing our country toward the ideal that was envisioned “toward a more perfect union.” You have had the advantage of knowing more diverse populations as friends, classmates, and teammates. This is a great benefit over most of my generation and my biggest fear now is one of your motivation. Will you try to make racial and social justice a priority through your actions, not just your words? I have confidence in you so far. All of you voted in the recent election. As a family, the Kennedys were 100%.
That is an important first step but remember that it is only the first step. Already, I know about the older grandkids who are striving to help by being pro-active. They are setting extremely important examples for all 14 of you. You are making your grandparents very proud of you.
With love,
Grandpa Kennedy (aka: Poppy)
“It is easier to build strong children than to repair broken men.”
Frederick Douglass
Braidwood Beginnings 