In 1963 I was blamed for JFK's death at the hands of an American communist who was then killed by another American who followed crime stories and hung out at the police station. (I don't think I was blamed for what Jack Ruby did, however). I was a 23 year old white woman working in the Russian Language and Area Studies Center at the University of Illinois, and even then, as a liberal, I thought that was pretty far fetched. And I was sensible enough to know the south and people of Dallas weren't to blame either--another favorite whipping boy of the media, even 50 years ago. I was able to narrow the responsibility down to the man who shot him. Now once again we have hate mongers attempting to blame everyone whose ancestors came to the U.S. from Ireland, England, Germany, Switzerland, Bosnia, Russia, including Jews, Mennonites, Lutherans, Catholics, Orthodox, and atheists (but not Spain whose people got here first but they are never blamed in these racist plots because of the made up word "Hispanic." ) I believe the people of Charleston have come together to show all the haters, those druggies who join hate organizations on the internet, and those mind addled who sit in their parents’ basement or are tethered to their i-phones making up lies about Drudge, the Tea Party and Fox, just how to share the love of Jesus. The crazies are out there, just like 1963, but I’m older now, and wiser, and I won’t take it anymore.
Monday, June 22, 2015
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1 comment:
Why are so many people ready and willing to accept responsibility/blame for the heinous acts of unrelated (in any way) people or groups. Were I to claim credit/honor for the heroic acts of someone else it would be called "stolen valor." Perhaps this current-day policy of blaming everybody for everything negative is "stolen blame". I, too, refuse to continue to accept blame for someone else's racism, someone else's hate, someone else's mental illness, or someone else's bad judgment. Joan
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