The Dysfunctional Foundation of Our History!

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By Ron Signore

History is a funny subject. One side of history is someone’s pride, and the other is someone’s defeat. History has that old cliché that it is his story, implying that facts are subject to the interpretation of those that took record of the accounts. That could mean that history is like a giant game of telephone in some areas, and it is exemplified in instances that we may call revisionist history. Take religion as a starting example. Religion demonstrates an account of history. That history has been preached for thousands of years. In Christianity, interpretations began spinning off into different branches, though the branches kept the same general focus as belief.

Which branch of the Christian faith is correct? The interpretation of gospel will be correct to the faith you believe in the end. But let us take something simple from Christianity that we have been told by illustration for hundreds of years that there are holes to poke doubt it…Jesus being white. Jesus has been illustrated as a light skinned blue eyed male for centuries. However, the region of which Jesus came from would possibly have him of a slightly darker pigment of skin, maybe that of someone of modern day middle eastern descent.

I bring that point to light because for a couple reasons. One, I just watched an episode of All in the Family where Archie is told by Henry Jefferson Jesus is black. Though it was in comic relief, from the point of the actual show, it was worth thinking about. Then two weeks ago, the same topic came up from Malcolm in jail to a Catholic priest in the biopic Malcolm X. I honestly have no intention of debating that topic, mainly because I do not care. My lack of care is not meant to be dismissive, but rather a point that it does not matter. Would it really change your opinion one way or another if the biblical man were white or black, or do you believe in living in the Christian way?

What I do care about is the challenge of history. Right now, we are challenging our history as a country every single day. We would all love to go on believe because we live in the greatest country in the world, which we do, that it is perfect. We idolize our nation like most idolize Michael Jordan. We put this divine, or godly, perception to their image. The problem is Michael Jordan is a mortal man and America is a country populated with mortals. Mortals are not perfect. They do things out of self-interest and self-gratification, when in turn, they are made out to be this saint, then led to a sense of disappointment when it learned their idol is not perfect. Or they go into complete denial to the mortal imperfect image of what they believe to be godly.

The United States of America has many blemishes in its record of history. Heck, those blemishes go prior to the establishment and governance of the United States in this land. Our first piece of challenged history comes way of the 15th century landing of Christopher Columbus upon our land. Growing up, we praised Columbus. We were read the glorifying stories of his successfully failed voyage to the Indies while discovering the New World. We proclaimed him the founder of America, and even gave him a holiday in his name. As an Italian, we glorify him even more. That divine perception sinks in at an early age. However, in recent decades, the country has seen an outcry from protestors to villainize Columbus. How could this literary portrayed hero explorer possibly be anything but? History would come to illustrate the acts of genocide Columbus and his settlers engaged in with the natives of the land. Columbus has been accused of tyrannical rule, while enslaving many of the indigenous natives. His arrival brought disease unknown to the natives. Christopher Columbus did things that today we find reprehensible, and I understand the calls to demonize his acts as a leader. However, one thing stands clear in my head, his accomplishment of discovering the America’s began and paved the way for settling and colonization of Europeans migrating west. We cannot eliminate the genesis of Columbus’ arrival, we can even celebrate the achievement of finding the New World, but that should never stop the truth of his actions of genocide and tyranny.

Fast forward a few hundred year as we embark on the possibility of becoming our own nation free of England’s rule. Men joined the Continental Army or formed militia in efforts to govern themselves as a free country. Taxation without representation or being held by British rule was of course unfavorable for settlers who came to America for freedom. White colonists were still of a superior class to the African American. Blacks were either slaves and treated as such, or they were servants that were treated in a more humane fashion, but the inhumaneness of their freedom was still nonexistent.

As the colonies pulled together, they eventually won their right to be free of England’s rule and formed our own government. We declared our independence (er Declaration of Independence) and freedoms in 1776 and elected our first President in General George Washington. The country began the groundwork of developing a government, its rules, regulations of governing, and its branches with one major aspect in mind: it is a government of the people, by the people for the people. The big picture of getting away from a tyrant 3,000 miles away was taking shape.

Thinking of the basic formation of our government and the functions it serves, it makes reflection of our history that much more intriguing. The amount of terror we have seen domestically simply by not living to our Declaration of Independence’s main principle that “We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.” Historically as a country, and in some areas far worse than others, this concept has been ignored to those who are not white. Basic human rights that fall under that pursuit of life, liberty and happiness have constantly been a battle. We celebrate the small wins of games we should already be playing.

Look, if I have not made the point clear enough, it is that our history has a wide spectrum of positive outcomes and negative blemishes, however, many have this type of selective memory to what history is. There is this stubborn and closed-minded conservatism to ignore things that got us where we are today. Topics like removing Confederate Monuments or the misguided pride in a heritage of hate by boasting the Confederate Flag as a symbol of your being are obvious blemishes that show some of the low points in our countries developing history. But those in my mind are tangible. We have lost sign of the history of the concept of our country.

The current events we see blasted on the news about the pandemic, economy or the ongoing problem of social injustice have sparked outrage on both sides of the political spectrum. While I do have bias in my own political ideologies, its my concern as someone who studied politics in college and likes to draw their own conclusions by the facts. Sadly, sometimes it becomes drawing conclusions to what the facts are due to the many interpretations by media and social media outlets. Though, you can pretty much figure if something comes out of Cheeto Man’s mouth, its probably bullshit, which makes figuring out the truth a little easier.

The study of our politics that concerns me is the denial of the foundation of our governing philosophy. I repeat the notion of liberating from a tyrant 3,000 miles away in efforts of a free land. Our bipartisan mentality is great for checks and balances purposes, because if governing gets too far right or left, that is not the result we want. But we have become stagnant with the status quo of what was and were constantly fighting for what should be. The Republican Party, or the conservative end of the political spectrum, is inherently opposed to change. Those values are put on a pedestal and the people supporting those old school thoughts walk around with big shoulders. They forget there is a nation of citizens that do not think the same way they do.

The USA by definition of its origination is liberal. The formation of our ideal “more perfect union” was to bring change from the status quo of British rule. By no means do I think the liberal agenda will result in a civil war or succession from our government as a whole, at least not anytime soon. But I do see this resistance to from the conservative side to the liberal progressive movements. I also see a forgetfulness to what this country’s founding principles are and that they are consistently damning people who exercise their rights legally as protected by our own constitutional Bill of Rights. They throw things out there like “America, love it or leave it,” without realizing the irony that statement can go both ways. We live in a country where we can demonstrate our displeasures as much as boast our pride for our great nation. We live in a nation where wanting change brings a ridiculous “Snowflake” stereotype, a mentality of “if you don’t like it, tough luck, put your big boy pants on a deal with it.” I have that mentality in certain arenas like business, or in sports when it came to helping drive toughness physically or mentally, but you cannot have that mentality when it comes to the liberty of life as a citizen.

The history has gotten farther away from the origins of our founding fathers. It almost seems like we are so proud to keep many of the negative traits if we can, recognize the small victories to what should be natural and resist growing as a union together by any means possible. It has only gotten worse as the orange turd smears across our nation, using the Constitution like toilet paper. His ignorant views of the way things should be, as long as they benefit him and his MAGA supporters, are only driving a greater wedge of hate and tension throughout the country. We came 244 years to theoretically “trade one tyrant 3,000 miles away for 3,000 tyrants one miles away. (The Patriot).” The worst part is that the flies that are part of the MAGA support system believe in the fear driven hatred paranoia propaganda Cheeto Man spews. These to me are the actual resistors. They resist moving forward or free thinking. They will paint the blemishes of our past and support our ongoing mistakes as divinity if their Grand Wizard Moscow Agent Governing America President blesses it, which is exactly what he is doing to some of the most hateful symbols of our country and continuing to wage an authoritarian war against the citizen’s that look to actually make this country great. It is us that push forward for change that make America Great. It was already Great. This imbecile made a slogan to shadow the great progressions we had made to try and revert it backwards 100 years, and he has successfully gotten there in some areas. That is his vision of great. That is the great his minions want to fight to keep great. If we let him have a second term in office as President, we will continue our descent backwards socially, continue losing our identity our freedoms have given us and more lives will be ruined or lost. His disrespect of our great country’s foundation of governance does make him a great two term president, and we can help him achieve that. He can do one term in Federal Prison and one term in NY State Prison.

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