Patriot

I have a friend named Daryl. We connected on Facebook. He is the younger cousin and brother of a couple of old high school friends of mine. Daryl served in the Air Force near 25 years ago, and is of course proud of his tenure, cherishing the relationships he made while based in locales that included South Korea. Not too many days pass that he doesn’t relay a story derived from his tour of duty, or mention his beloved, recently departed brother, Brian, who was also an airman. Daryl is deeply religious and a sharp dresser. Often, he will post a picture of himself with his wife in a stylish suit, adorned w a red, white and blue tie, or hankercheif. Yes, safe to say Daryl is not bashful with his patriotism. He also happens to be African-American.

Like most black community leaders, Daryl has been incensed by the steady stream of police brutality, as well as increasing episodal and organized racism. He lives in Georgia, which seems to have more than its share of bias, so he often posts about incidents. Reading his comments is hard because they express a patriot’s disappointment in his country. But it is perhaps the purest commentary one will find on the issue of whether two Americas exist because Daryl has no agenda, and imbibes no narrative. There is nothing gratuitous or political about his observations. He simply calls it like he sees it.

Fox/AM does disgusting things almost on the hour, but at the top of the pantheon of greatest hits is its attacks on Black Lives Matter and other groups responding to outrageous, often fully documented, police brutality against unarmed US citizens. The tide turned against the south on civil rights in the 60s when a nation watched grotesque cruelty and injustice on television. Now, 50 years later, something has changed. Not only do otherwise decent people seem desensitized to the same type of ugly images, but an entire multimedia platform spins what is right before us, while declaring those seeking redress to be extremists, even criminals. Walter Cronkite, where are you when we need you.

Daryl clearly respects the law and the uniform. He simply sees what the rest of us see and responds accordingly. He trusts his eyes and ears, and has no need for Laura Ingraham to explain how they tricked him. Of course, he is deeply offended that our POTUS seems to think bigots have valid points to make, but appears to do a remarkable job compartmentalizing his love for country from egregious examples of bigotry carried out under its banner. To my eyes, he doesn’t abide injustice, but keeps the faith.

The concept of white privilege comes up more frequently these days. It’s present in a wide range of forums, from academia, as an emerging field of study, to the Shit River, where it’s gaslighted as an egregious form of liberal psychosis. For me, it’s like Oliver Wendell Holmes’ definition of pornography… you know it when you see it. And its there in Daryl’s FB threads because white soldiers don’t have to consider the possibility that the country they served and love feels less about them because of their skin color and ancestry. It’s an emotional dilemma that will never cross their mind. Lucky them. BC