It Made me Angry

As promised, this is the first post under the broader heading of Satisfying Retirement. As noted in To Everything There Is a Season, after nine plus years of writing about regular retirement topics, I felt the need to make a course correction. I began to feel that writing only about typical retirement concerns was no longer being honest with my feelings and deepest concerns. Plus, it was becoming kind of boring.

Retirement is a unique stage of life. We have the time and freedom to become more involved in the world around us. The status of our investments, relationships, where to travel, and how to maneuver through the maze of Medicare and Social Security are important. They come with the territory.

But, is that enough? There is a much bigger world beyond our personal retirement concerns and lifestyle. There are forces at work that are changing how all of us live. There are problems that we can only ignore at our own peril. There are powers at work that will impact us whether we want them to or not.

I want to address them, too.

Then there are parts of our lives that are worth exploring. Spirituality, mortality, being more mindful of each passing day come to mind. So do thoughts on a more spartan lifestyle, a health approach or diet that seems to work. How about keeping a long term marriage interesting and vibrant? What movies are we seeing or books are we reading that leave a lasting impression? All sorts of possibilities are possible topics.

I realize this comes with risks. I appreciate that some regular readers of this blog may be dismayed by this more diverse direction and decide to go elsewhere. If that is you, know you go with my blessing and support. There are several more traditional retirement blogs listed on the right sidebar I invite you to visit and make them your new home.

I am hoping that many of you will stay. You are encouraged to leave comments and express your feelings on subjects that may be important to you. It would be satisfying if new readers find this blog and discover a place to learn, think, challenge, and grow. I will do my best to welcome a diversity of opinion. I will not simply express my views on a particular subject and ask you agree with all that I write. That would be boring, for you and me, and not help contribute to the conversations we must have.

OK, so with all that said, what "Made Me Angry" enough to be the first post under the wider scope of  Satisfying Retirement?

Harriet Tubman (1822-1913)

It was a movie I saw recently with my wife and one of my daughters. Harriet is the powerful, gut-wrenching, anger-inducing, tear generating story of Harriet Tubman. Born in 1822 in Maryland, this rather diminutive woman was a powerful giant in forcing a society's attitude toward slavery and human rights to begin to change.

Her story is one of courage, love of family, and placing personal safety behind the need to help right a wrong. She was responsible for the escape to freedom of hundreds of slaves through the work of the Anti Slavery society in Philadelphia and as part of the Underground Railroad during the Civil War. She worked tirelessly to help change the American mindset that slavery was either necessary or could be tolerated to maintain economic and social stability.

This isn't the place to go through Ms. Tubman's full story. The movie is worth your time, or the library and Internet can give you glimpses into her amazing life. What I want to address is my strong reaction to this story: Anger....anger at the treatment of human beings as animals and property based simply on skin color and history.

The idea that one class or race can own another goes back thousands of years. But, to fully appreciate that a country founded on freedom from religious and political oppression could allow, no, encourage human slavery, is almost too hard to process. It is a dark, evil part of our our collective past. There is no way to paint it as something other than what it was. 

Getting (and staying) angry at something historical is important, but there is a bigger takeaway. While slavery may not exist legally anymore, one must be willfully blind to not see racial discrimination is still a powerful, daily part of American society. Do even a minimal amount of Google research on shootings and police mistreatment of blacks, or racial profiling in real estate, education, and employment and my point will be made.

Look at the immigration debate and border situation, see through some of the political posturing, and you must see racism, coupled with fear of "the other," as part of the problem. Yes, illegal border crossings are a huge problem that must be corrected. It is an issue that doesn't lend itself to slogans or simple solutions. I live in Phoenix, Arizona, less than 200 miles from the porous border with Mexico, so I live close to the center of the problem.

But, to stigmatize those desperate for a better life as criminals and rapists is not that different from the fear used to control and maintain slavery over 170 years ago. Just like in slavery times, to tear families apart as a tool of control and power is just as cruel and useless. Migration issues are for another post, so I will stop here except to emphasize that the damage done by hate and racism is ongoing. Slavery comes in many different forms.

I hope that the disappointment, and anger I felt after seeing Harriet doesn't simply fade from my consciousness over time. When presented with the opportunity to confront racism or racial profiling in all its various forms, I pray I will have the fortitude to speak up. I dream of a time when this subject is a foul part of our history, not part of our present and future.

Thanks for reading.


Note: I was sad (and disappointed) to learn of a series of harassing verbal assaults, written racial slogans and graffiti against Asian and African-American students on the walls of various buildings at my alumnus, Syracuse University, in late November. It had gotten so bad that all social functions at all Greek Fraternities were banned for the last few weeks of the fall semester.

I am sure this kind of stuff happened when I was a student and fraternity member there in the late 60's and early 70's, though it seemed we spent our energy demonstrating against the Vietnam War and that dreaded Industrial-Military complex.

Syracuse has had a reputation of being a liberal, progressive, welcoming school. Obviously, the type of hatred and intolerance that Harriet portrays and we read about every day, has infected every corner of our world.

It makes me angry.