Relativity is in full swing in America! All the latest news headlines reek of 'it's not really my fault'! Cops are being killed, 'blacks' are being persecuted, Muslims are being profiled & 'whites' are being privileged. Not all cops, 'blacks', Muslims, or 'whites' enjoy the same status, though, some escape the stigma often attached to their genus, while the rest are lumped right in with the 'bad apples'. It hasn't quite come to this yet in America, though certain people are trying, but Muslims are in danger of becoming the new 'Japanese', or even 'Germans', when it comes to being stigmatized for your heritage or religion.
Persecution has been around for ages; there's nothing new about one group of people being accorded 'privilege' over another group, or certain people being 'down-trodden' because of sex, color or religion. One only has to look at recent history to see that the Negro has enjoyed a history of being labeled a second-class citizen at best & one step above a pure animal at worst. While it is true that many of the original 'blacks' over in Africa were animalistic in their behavior & lifestyle, Negroes in America are far removed from this situation, thanks in large part to those dastardly slave-traders who whisked them from their lives of comfort in Africa & brought them, in chains, to the New World!
Whatever the heritage & history, most people nowadays seem to have an excuse for why they live the way they live & act the way they act. Most of these excuses are not even very good! Those with a Japanese heritage may actually empathize with the Negro in America when it comes down to a matter of oppression & injustice. The history of the Chinese in the early Frontier Days & the Building of the West might inform the Negro of a few things about slavery as well. These are only a few examples, not to mention the American 'Indian', of those peoples who, just in this country, have suffered injustice at the hands of those who stood 'above' them!
For whatever reason, we live in the midst of a society that lives as if everybody else owes them something! Because of the way, or even where they were brought up, some people excuse or otherwise justify there actions by putting the blame elsewhere, anywhere but on their own shoulders, where it truly belongs. 'Because this happened to me, my parents or grandparents & because of what I have to deal with now, this is the way I act', you might hear one say. While this may be true enough, we must accept personal responsibility for our own actions: our choice may have depended largely on certain factors, but whatever the case may be, we still made the choice to act thusly!
Man was born with the free will to choose! Some choose wrongly & some choose rightly. Many, in fact, probably more than those who choose the good, have chosen evilly. This is not to say, however, that everyone who has chosen wrongly, or evilly, has done so because he or she is evil, or 'bad to the bone', just that, over the course of history, there have been many wrong, or bad, choices. Just like a lie, a bad choice often leads to yet another bad choice, sometimes worse than the first one. This is not always the case: usually, depending on the will-power of the victim & the Strength Within, the one who has made a bad choice because of their background, environment or whatever the case may be, can break the chain of events & tun their own life around, choosing, instead, to do what is right, no matter the extenuating circumstances!
Heritage & history are not easy to overcome; just ask any former 'junkie'! When one has grown up making certain choices & living a certain way, it is hard to 'go against the grain', so to speak, 'to kick against the goads', to use biblical language. It can be very difficult, painful even, when one is used to making bad decisions & has become accustomed to, even comfortable with them, to make the conscious decision to change their behavior, their lifestyle for the better. It can be done, however & often is, through the Strength of the Spirit of those others who have joined themselves with the Creator of Heaven & Earth, walking according to the example set forth by His Only Begotten Son!
Negroes are not the only group of people to have suffered enslavement, in fact some still suffer this tyranny & injustice! Probably more Caucasians, in fact, than Negroes, or 'blacks', have witnessed this travesty & for far longer. The history of slavery in these United States has focused primarily on the Negro, but these are, by far, not the only ones to labor under this cruel taskmaster: many Caucasians, or 'whites', primarily poor Europeans have been subjected to this ignominy as well. One could easily make the point that most Americans still wear these 'chains of oppression', to one degree or another!
'It is what it is'! Truth is absolute: right is right & wrong is wrong! Though extenuating circumstances may seem to make what is right for, one wrong for another, or what is wrong for one, right for the other, but when it comes down to it, truth does not depend on extenuating circumstances; it just is. Some may choose to split atoms here & talk about choosing white socks over black, or a bikini over a sundress, but when it come to living according to the Laws of Nature & Nature's God, there is one choice that leads to a blessed existence!
Whether one is 'black' or 'white', Muslim or Christian, from Azerbaijan or Zambia, we all are the children of One Father & we all have a choice; whether to live according to His Law, the Law of Love & be blessed, or to live contrary to it & be cursed: it's that simple! Depending on the choice that we make, we will either enjoy or deplore the life that we live in this biology. No matter our history or the chaos that we live in the midst of, may we choose wisely, to Love as He Loved, to Live as He Lived & Lives!
Charles Haddon Shank
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