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| President Obama giving Dakota Meyer the Medal of Honor. |
A note from Dakota Meyer courtesy of Bristol Palin's possibly non-ghostwritten
blog:
I’m tired. I’m tired of seeing my country divided and fighting itself. It has been tricked by the media and by this administration thinking that the enemy is us. Hitler used the common enemy approach prior to World War II to unite a splintered and struggling Germany. We used the common enemy of communism to unite our country for the 40 or so years that followed the end of that war. (So wait, we used Nazi tactics, and that is supposedly a good thing?)
Then the wall came down and we lacked a true common enemy until September 11, 2001. (I'm going to guess that something this poorly written comes mostly from Meyer himself, with perhaps a little help with editing. But what I think he's trying to say is that we need somebody to hate in order to unite America. Which is pretty fucked up if you think about it.)
But then that faded and America was in a lull of sorts lacking unity. Then 8 years ago “Change” was brought to the White House and over the past 8 years I have seen that change. The media and the Obama administration have worked tirelessly and we are just about there now. We are not a nation as much as we have become groups of people fighting amongst one another because the enemy is us. (People standing up for their rights to be treated equally and justly is considered "fighting among ourselves?" Does Meyer think that was true during the Civil Rights marches, the rallies for women's rights, and the protests against war? You know what, he probably does.)
When did we become so ugly as a nation? Why are we ok with not being better human beings? I’m tired of watching people dying. I’ve seen too much of it. I’m tired of the anger over things that aren’t even understood. (Actually most of us DO understand it. And if you studied better so might you.)
Just stop.
We know better than to act like this. Guns are not evil. Police are not evil. It is people who have become ugly and cruel to one another. It is people who have accepted the easy way out. They’ve chosen to be afraid and angry. They’ve chosen to blame other people for their problems. It is easy to be angry and blame someone else than to take responsibility for yourself. We need to just stop. Stop blaming other people and start now making ourselves better as human beings. (Okay black folks do you hear that? You have "chosen" to be afraid and angry and all you have to do is stop being angry and just accept that you will be harassed by the police and shot dead for having a legal firearm in your possession.)
It is time to be done with being bound by a common enemy and instead be bound by the commonality that we are all Americans. I am saddened by what happened this evening and the events leading up to it. My heart and my prayers go out to the families of the officers who were shot in Dallas tonight. (But not for the young black men who were shot by the police?)
This isn’t what I want to leave for my daughter when I die and I will be dammed if I am going to sit here and do nothing.
So instead of doing nothing you attack the man who awarded you the medal without which nobody would even know your fucking name?
You know Dakota is right about one thing, the violent racism DID bubble to the surface when President Obama was elected.
However he didn't cause it, he was the target of it.
And ever since the first black man was elected President, and the racists stormed out of the shadows to attack him, we are seeing more and more black and brown people refusing to stay quiet about the institutional racism which has been present since the founding of this nation, and which many white folks seem to be learning about for the first time.
That is not tearing us apart, that is educating us.
And by the way Dakota, asking people in pain to stop sharing that pain publicly because it makes you uncomfortable demonstrates to most of us that the hero who earned that medal in Afghanistan is light years away from the man who was tricked into marrying a member of the Palin family.
Now you are a puppet being used to spread ignorance in the guise of wisdom.
Now you are helping to fund attempts to stifle a family's 1st Amendment rights.
Now you are an embarrassment to all of the others before you who have worn that medal which President Obama so graciously put around your neck.
Is THAT what you want to leave for your daughter when you die?
