Every once in a while I’ll post an affirmation or song lyric that means something to me at the moment. It’s not an everyday thing but there are days when I’ll post two or three of them up. There can be days or even weeks when I don’t. Because I have been putting out Chaotic Fringe for so long, I tend not to be embarrassed about positions I take or words I put out there. The reason is, for better or worse, is I think about the consequences of my actions. I have to think about how what I may say will reflect on me.

I find it sad so many other people who post things on social media are surprised when people are actually social about it. They seemed taken aback when there are disagreements with their statements. It’s like they assume freedom of speech is only for them. They assume if they put something online others aren’t allowed to criticize them, argue with them or point out the faults in the argument as they see it. Many want the freedom to say what they want but don’t want to take responsibility for what they say. I also find it sad, in my opinion, that many of these folks, instead of standing up for their beliefs, resort to passive-aggressive condemnation of the ‘negative’ comments, relying on shaming and slight ridicule to get their point across. It is a tactic that doesn’t win arguments but builds on mistrust and animosity.

The older I get, the more I realize how my upbringing was vastly different than people younger than me, say Millennials and Generation Y people. Sunday I watched the Melissa Harris Perry Show online and they did a story about the 20th anniversary about the OJ Bronco chase and the impact of the case in America. Many of the people on the panel remarked about how they had to explain the nuances of the case to much younger staff members. It reminded me of discussions I can remember in high school about the JFK assassination. I wasn’t born when it happened but if you talk to anyone around at the time, they have details about where they were or the impact on them that can be a bit foreign to someone who didn’t experience the event at the time. The same can be said about the moon landing, 9/11, even something like the OJ trial.

As was brought up in the discussion on MHP, the OJ trial was in the mix of the Rodney King beating, the verdict against the officers in that case and the uprising/riots that occurred soon after. The OJ case occurred in the wake of the tension between Korean shop owners and the black community. I remember about the kid who was shot by the Korean woman in LA and the relatively light sentence she got. I remember one of the themes in Do the Right Thing, out in 1989, had to do with the interaction between Korean grocers and blacks. Before that you had to Tawana Brawley case in 1987, the Howard Beach incident in 1986 and other racial incidents that polarized the nation.

Sometimes I envy younger people who look at life with a sense of innocence. I sometimes love how they feel if they think positively or ‘put out good vibes’ the world will be a better place. I live in a world where that isn’t the case. I’m not saying we can’t achieve the world of happiness, I really think we can, but to get to that world is going to take more than empty rhetoric, simple affirmations and #hastags to achieve that goal. For all the racial tensions we went through in the late 80s and early 90s, people are still surprised and shocked when we have incidents like the Trayvon Martin shooting. It has been 15 years since the Columbine shooting and we still can’t have a rational conversation or rational legislation on gun control. The sad thing is if I mention the recent shooting, I have to clarify which one because there have been three or four major shootings in the past two weeks. There is always talk about the subject, much like racial issues in this country, but practically little is being done that is effective.

A few years ago, there were legitimate issues being address by two different organizations. One group was so unfocused their message was incomprehensible to most because the group wanted to be all things to all people. The other group became co-opted by the fringe in their organization, dissuaded moderate discussion and left radicals in charge to push the movement forward. Ironically, both organizations started out attacking the same organization, the banking industry. The Occupy Wall Street movement is a wisp of its former self and in my opinion was never the agent of change they set out to be because there was a Millennial sense of organization to the group. I did a lot of reporting about the local OWS group and it surprised me about how little people were willing to sacrifice for the causes they supported. In the Civil Rights Movement, leaders were routinely beaten and jailed for their beliefs. The OWS group, and I will clarify this is what I saw on the local level, could barely survive a day in jail before their enthusiasm subsided. The Tea Party Movement has grown to a potent political force in the Republican Party. Yes, they have changed from their original goals but they are affecting change that is impacting local, state and national politics.

Everyday I’m hit with affirmations from people who don’t walk the way they preach. They live with a mindset that adversity is discouraged. You see it reality shows where people are proving things to ‘the world’ or ‘all of America’ yet they lack the confidence to own up to their mistakes and learn from them. A group like the Tea Party can have setbacks and will come back stronger than ever by learning from their mistakes. The OWS movement died because a slight setback was seen as a major one and people bailed from the movement. When the Civil Rights movement needed to take action, thousands marched on Washington to make change. With that great show of force, it took a year for legislation to be put into law and many more years for the old system to die.