Sunday To Monday Ramblings

 This week, we celebrated St Patrick's Day- normally a huge boozy event ( although not at my house in years)  I celebrated with a friend who is in my "pod" and had a wee dram of whiskey.  Traditional meal included Corned beef and cabbage, with potatoes and carrots, Irish soda bread and my "grandmother's spice cake."   My kids swooped by and picked up some leftovers- I am pleased to say that both my grandsons like corned beef.

Every year, I think about what it must have meant to be Irish in the early 1900's  My family came here in the 1890's, which means they survived the Great Famine and came here later.  I know the Irish couldn't get jobs or in some places, buy land.  A lot of them took "unwanted" jobs- Cops and firefighters.  Those became prized jobs with good pay over the years, but back then they were looked down upon.

I actually started writing this yesterday and life intruded, so here I am on Monday morning, trying to pick up the thread of meaning.

I have been reading messages on Facebook regarding the rise in attacks on Asian people.  This has been going on for years, but has accelerated thanks in no small part to the Orange Shitgibbon.  He is still trying to overthrow the government, trying to destabilize everything in hopes of avoiding the judgment of law he so richly deserves.  I honestly CAN'T with people who say, "oh leave him alone.  That's in the past" Ok   so I rob a bank, shoot your grandmother, burn down your house and I should be left alone because it is in the past?  Sheesh.  

I see a lot of hand wringing from people of my ethnic background, complaining that not all of us are racist.  That's true.   I have two, somewhat conflicting thoughts

1-The shoe is on the other foot and it doesn't feel so good, does it?  Does it give you pause, to think how people of color feel every day and this has been going on... forever?  Maybe it will make you think , if you actually lump someone into a group , based on the color of their skin or where their ancestors hailed from.

2-How does it feel, if you are a person of color, to apply the same vitriol you have been fighting for years to another person?   Does it make you feel bigger? Braver?  Empowered?  Maybe for a moment or two, but it is no more right when you do it than when we do it.

  Do we need to punish or do we need to heal? Obviously this statement is in direct conflict with the need to punish a criminal whose acts have caused such grief in this country.  Is racism in and of itself a crime?  No, I don't think so.  It's when you ACT on that belief that you are somehow better than someone, work to injure that person in some way , that it becomes a crime.  

I know in recent years, there have been complaints about people using Dr. Martin Luther King's words to prove a point, but as a child I heard this and it has always resonated with me:

    "I look to a day when people will not be judged by the color of their skin, but by the content of their        character"

Simple words, with great power.  I remember too, something I heard and try to keep in my mind as I struggle with biases I did not know I had.  The first thought you have is what you have been conditioned to think, the second is who you are.  Sometimes I think   WHOA  where did THAT come from and brush it out my mental threshold and out of my head.  We can all do better.  As Maya Angelou said "Once you know better, do better."

I hope to.