Words Can Be Dangerous

THIS BLOG WAS WRITTEN IN DECEMBER, 2014.

            Words; language; the ability to communicate and convey thoughts and ideas. Words are an amazing thing. Words have the ability to lift you higher than you can imagine and words can break your heart. Words can make you think; they can make you feel. Words can be complex and difficult to navigate or they can be simple and sweet and make you smile, or warm, or feel love. Words can be dangerous. They can incite and ignite; they can lead people to violence; or, they can lead people to freedom. Words, they are the first and the last thing we hear in our earthly lives.

                I read a piece recently about Ulysses, author James Joyce’s seminal novel about one day in the life of one man. I must confess, I was never overly impressed with Mr. Joyce or his novel. I read it because it was known as “America’s most banned book.” At its publication in the early days of twentieth century it was deemed pornographic and lurid, too lurid for “decent” society.

            Ulysses is just one in dozens of books – both great works of literature and mediocre musings – which find their way to be banned, prohibited from view, because someone thinks the words can cause harm. Words are dangerous. Remember the book burnings in Germany as Hitler and his henchmen came to power? Remember Salman Rushdie and his “death sentence” by fatwah for allegations of defaming the Islamic prophet? Remember the Chinese Christians locked up for having Bibles? Words convey ideas, dreams, frustrations. Words can change the course of history and topple governments. Words are powerful.

            The other week, Veterans Day to be specific, there was a concert held on the Washington Mall featuring a host of popular entertainers. Rap artist Eminem in his performance shouted out “Happy F----n Veteran’s Day.” Words can offend.

            In the past three weeks we have seen this nation’s ugly racial problems play out. Grand juries, first in Ferguson, Missouri and then just this week in New York City, refused to indict white police officers in the deaths of black men. The rhetoric on both sides has inflamed the tension. And I thought much during this time about our seeming inability to hear each other. Amid the shouting and the video bits of looting and protests, with dozens of “talking heads” trying to convince us what we should think, the meaning of it all gets lost in the cacophony of words.

            “There’s no excuse for violence or looting,” I heard that a lot. Wasn’t it the Black Panther leader Stokey Carmichael who said “violence is as American as apple pie.” And there’s truth in those words. The American Revolution wasn’t a quiet debate between agrarian intellectuals and London elites. It was bloody and barbaric. The Boston Massacre, years before the start of the revolution, was incited by a rioting mob attacking British soldiers. Violence was, violence is unfortunately, a corner-stone of this country’s history. There was nothing “civil” about this nation’s civil war. We are a nation littered in blood and violence. From “Bloody Kansas to Bloody Selma,” from the burning of Washington to the burning of Watts, we are a people steeped in rioting, and conflict, and turmoil. It is our visceral reaction, our birthright. So, breathe deeply and relax, this too shall pass.

            Five St. Louis Rams football players enter the stadium last Sunday. They raise their hands signifying “hands up, don’t shoot,” the chant which has overtaken the Ferguson protests. The five are pilloried for taking a political stance at a game. “They don’t have the right,” we hear. Except, they do. And the league can discipline them. This is, after all, America and at least – in theory – you can protest, you can speak out. You may lose your job, but you still have the right. And, it doesn’t escape my sense of humor that we react with awe and admiration when a young Chinese man tries to stop a tank in Tiananmen Square but we are offended when traffic is stopped on the Brooklyn Bridge.

            “Now we are engaged in a great civil war testing whether that nation – or any nation – can long endure.” Immortal words from President Abraham Lincoln on November 19, 1863, at the dedication of the National Cemetery at Gettysburg, Pennsylvania. His words that day – less than 300 words penned by him – continue to reverberate in this nation’s conscience. I find myself turning to those words to try and understand what does this country stand for, what do we mean?

            It is time for a “civil” dialog. Words matter and words today can make all the difference. This past week two NBA greats – television commentators Charles Barkley and Kenny Smith – engaged in a civil dialog. Both successful Black men, they see the incidents in Ferguson and New York City differently. To Barkley, rioters/looters are “scumbags.” “Not all black people are good and not all white people are evil. We need the police in our poor neighborhoods.” To Smith, “if you are on an island with no way off, some will rise above, some will act in horrific ways, and some will lose hope.” A funny thing happened as these two men disagreed. As Charles Barkley said, “Kenny’s alright with me.” In their debate, in their disagreement there was commonality, there was “civil” discourse.

            A personal reflection. On a number of occasions I’ve had people try and tell me I should shut down the blog or not write some of what I put out. I’ve had gang bangers threaten me, ignorant white and black inmates tell me to “keep they business” off my pages. I’ve had COs tell me “higher ups” review my blogs. “Don’t write about security or senior staff or they’ll go after you,” a few officers have told me. I keep writing because words matter. Words can illuminate and educate and bring about change. And perhaps that’s what makes them so dangerous.

            You can burn books; you can ban writers; but words are ideas. And ideas make us human and will endure.

 

Forces of Evolution

On July 3^rd, 1863, after two days of horrendous fighting in the small Pennsylvania town of Gettysburg, the Army of Northern Virginia began to form up behind a tree covered tract. Directly in front of it, on a gradual hill almost two miles away, lay the Army of the Potomac. Confederate General Robert E. Lee surveyed the battlefield. For two days, his rebel army had fought, bled, and died in an attempt to defeat the Union army, march on Washington and gain peace and independence for the Confederacy.

            Lee ordered General George Pickett to lead a grand charge across the open hillside and attack the dug in Union army at its center. A clump of trees sat at the Northern army line’s mile-wide center. “Aim for the copse of trees,” Pickett urged his officers as the 15,000 strong division began the long march forward.

            The troops marched as cannon fire and small bore canister shells tore gaping holes in their ranks. The men reformed and pressed forward moving in an orderly, disciplined march into a furious wall of fire. Barely half strength, they reached the front of the Union line. During furious hand to hand fighting a small number of rebel troops managed to breach the Union defenses and pour through at the copse of trees. For a few dramatic moments the battle hung in the balance with those few Confederate soldiers on the cusp of victory. But, a rapid Union counter-attack overwhelmed the rebel soldiers. In less than six hours the haggard Army of Northern Virginia retreated from the battlefield. They were badly beaten and would never again threaten an invasion of the north. Within two years, the Confederate States of America would cease to exist as an independent body. They foolishly marched into a withering fire and were slaughtered. For a few brief moments at the copse of trees they could sense victory. It was their high water mark. It would never return.

            I thought about that army as I watched the Presidential election returns with ninety other inmates, almost every one of whom had their TV turned on as the news broadcast the results. The vast majority of men in this place saw the re-election of President Obama as a wondrous event. They cannot separate race and economic status from a campaign. Obama, they believe, is just like them. They don’t understand that the President abhors gangs and crime, and that he is part of the “one percent.”

            For me, as I watched more states go “blue” I couldn’t help but think I was witnessing the high water mark of the GOP. Never again, I fear, will they muster sufficient national strength to win. It is ironic that so many in the current Republican Party reject evolution, because evolution explains their predicament. They either evolve or die off. I believe they will choose the latter.

            I spend a great deal of time each day explaining history, philosophy, politics, and economics to my fellow convicted felons. For many in here, I’m the most educated man they’ve ever met. And, as the election approached I found myself explaining the Republican’s positions on virtually every subject. Most of the time, however, I found myself serving as an apologist for the party of Lincoln, a party that has lost its identity and its way.

            Some reading this may wonder what an inmate, a convicted felon, is doing advising anyone. Good question. Perhaps, more than most, I know what it means to lose one’s way. Perhaps, more than most, I know you can change. But staying inert means ruin.

            Republicans lost both the popular vote and the Electoral College vote even as they took more than 59% of the white vote with sizeable majorities in those ages 35 to 64 and over 65. If the United States was all married, white, church-going families with children, Mitt Romney would be president. The problem the Republicans have is that’s not America in 2013.

            Thirteen percent of all voters were Black. Romney got 7% of those. Eleven percent of all voters were Hispanic (more in some of the crucial swing states). Romney lost that block 71% to 27%. Young voters (18 to 30) accounted for 19% of the votes tabulated. Romney lost them two to one. You will not win many elections where you start out conceding one of every three votes.

            Why doesn’t the party of Lincoln have more sway with minority voters? After all, both Black and Hispanic voters match white marital and church demographics so prized among the Republican establishment. Could it be because of the harsh rhetoric and outrageous social positions taken by Republicans smack of racism?

            I have learned a good deal during my incarceration. Here are a few basics. First, any rational parent, regardless of color, wants their children to have a better life than they do. Second, people come to America for opportunity. In spite of this nation’s faults, it is still looked at as the one place where dreams for a better life can come true. It’s what drove white Puritans here in the seventeenth century and what drives Mexicans, Columbians, Sudanese, Chinese, and people from a hundred other countries to come here.

            In many ways, I now accept that my time in prison has made me into a better man. I’ve become a born again Christian. I don’t say that lightly. I never believed in such a thing. Life, however, when it tears at your gut and you wonder, “Can I survive tonight?” brings you face to face with the Almighty. I was an ordained Deacon, Elder, and Sunday School teacher in my church. And from all appearances, I was a “good Christian.” But I wasn’t. It wasn’t until I sat alone in a cell and had nothing left that I turned to God. I evolved. Perhaps that’s the place the Republican Party now finds itself.

            A good deal will be written about this election. Fault will be assessed. “Romney was the wrong candidate” some will argue. Others will blame the Tea Party for their intolerance on issues such as gay rights, abortion, and birth control. But, like inmates coming to grips with their crimes and atoning for their wrong doing the Republicans must be open to change.

            Abraham Lincoln came to believe that the Civil War, the earth shattering bloodletting the nation underwent was divinely required to end the scourge of slavery. But Lincoln also saw the future. He knew those same battling people could eventually find “the better angels in ourselves.”

            You either evolve or you die. That is the crossroad the Grand Old Party stands before.