Editor’s note: This commentary is by Neil Johnson, who is state chair and founder of the Green Mountain Party and a real estate broker. He lives in Waitsfield.
[W]e are now in an age where one fact, one partial truth, lie or story can spread across the country within minutes. Even in our not so distant past, news wouldn’t come out until 6 p.m. or the next day in the paper. In one sense, this has been able to connect people in real time, we all feel the event when it happens, but we rarely know any facts and never the whole story. We have to be careful; we have to protect our American values, of truth and justice. We are wired together across the nation for good and bad. This instantaneous feedback is often the fuel for mob justice and fear. It sows the seeds of fear and mistrust.
Sometimes we need to wait and find the facts. We need to question where our information is coming from, is it accurate, and is it complete? Does this information actually reflect the real world? Clearly a 50-word comment or 30-second video rarely shows the whole story. We take a video that shows a partial event and think this holds all the truth. These are the seeds of fear and mistrust that send us down the road to stereotyping.
What is happening to our country? On July 7, sitting at my desk, seeing the news of what is going on in Texas, in our country, I cried. We are Americans. Are we now Americans, fearful of each other, mistrusting of each other, disrespecting of each other? Is this truly justified? Who is sowing these seeds of fear and mistrust? Are they being fueled by many others with self-interest and a pursuit for fame and selling of ads in the news? In our little state of Vermont we recently have many articles being printed about DWB (Driving While Black) and racial profiling by police, in response to the events occurring in Texas, the Burlington Police department doubling up patrol officers in fear for their lives. But I have to ask, is this an actual, accurate portrayal of what is going on in our state? Having one or two incidents is not the same as “it happens all the time”; it is by definition something that is highly unusual. Vermont is the same as it was yesterday, and is today, the largest differences by far, are the seeds of fear and mistrust that have been planted in our state.
Van Jones produced a video, and while I seldom agree with him, he made a very good point, African-Americansand the police are feeling the same pain. They are feeling the same fear. They are feeling the same mistrust. These seeds of fear and mistrust have without a doubt been planted. They must not be watered; we must not put them in fertile soil and plenty of sun where they grow into a noxious weed, killing out all the good, the love and productivity of our American garden.
We the people need to raise up our good leaders, our good citizens. If we fertilize and tender these seeds of fear and mistrust we’ll have more noxious weeds, we’ll have leaders and celebrities that are noxious and tear down our great nation. I am sure there are plenty of great religious leaders within our inner cities, those leaders who are on the ground helping and coaching our inner cities to a better more prosperous community. Have you seen them on TV? Have you heard about them? We are bombarded with propaganda and TV whores, like candy they are lacking in nutrition, substance and leave us depressed.
While at Thunder Road that same day, talking with my brother, he was so concerned about his friends and their sons. He was genuinely concerned that his American friends of African descent were going to be shot by the police. Can you imagine that fear? Can you imagine the fear of coming up to a car and not knowing if the person is going to be violent or attempt to kill you? You see they are both thinking the same thing, when actually for the MILLIONS of interactions between police and Americans of African descent, neither is ever the case. Neither is rarely, rarely thinking, I’m going to kill this person, but the fear is now planted on both sides.
Yet these seeds of fear and mistrust are being pampered and encouraged to grow. These very few seeds are taken and reported to be the way the entire community thinks, we are quickly on the road to stereotyping. The bad seed if allowed to grow becomes a noxious weed, then a stereotype, then racist on both sides. Progressions like this got us into a world conflict, propaganda, leading to stereotyping, leading to racism, which was taken to the extreme, with the attempt of extermination of an entire race.
Are we going to follow the leaders who heal or leaders who sow seeds of fear and mistrust? Shall we instead plant the seeds of love, trust and justice?
The facts, police officers have unjustly shot African-Americans. True. African-Americans have killed cops who were only performing their duties. True. This is absolutely true and tragic. How many actual times per year? Please know this answer. These events, however, do not portray the entire story or even an accurate picture. These events do not define our communities of African-Americans nor our police departments; they are only the actions of a very, very few. It does not come close in defining our communities, to suggest otherwise is a fabrication of the truth, a bold-face lie. The actions of a very few do not portray our great communities with any basis for reality; it is not the real world. These are evil seeds of fear and mistrust.
Even with the recent tragic, massive, unheard of events, the events still do not accurately portray two of the finest American groups. These portrayals do such a disservice to our African-Americans and our officers in uniform. We have one group, that has brought themselves from slavery to becoming the most successful group of Americans and people the world has ever known. African-Americans are some of the world’s best athletes, doctors, firemen, police officers, mayors, business people, and leaders of the free world. There is nothing an African-American cannot do or strive to do in this country.
Our police officers, while dressed in one color, blue, cover all races and backgrounds. We live in what is arguably the safest time in all human history, despite what we are being told. Our officers for the most part have never been so well trained, they are doing remarkable jobs. Yet we have other Americans fearing for their lives when they encounter an officer.
So I ask my fellow Americans, are we going to let the seeds of mistrust, fear and hatred be sown by a handful of people? Are we going to let our view of African-Americans be swayed by a handful of hoods that perpetrate some heinous crime? Are we going to judge and dismantle our entire police system because of the actions of three or six policemen? Are we going to let social media, tabloid news and mob justice ruin our great country? Are we going to follow the leaders who heal or leaders who sow seeds of fear and mistrust? Shall we instead plant the seeds of love, trust and justice?
Or, are we Americans coming together with our profound love for our fellow countryman? Are we going to come together as Americans, promoting our ideals that justice is blind, blind to color, blind to wealth and influence? Are tweets and 30-second videos replacing our entire legal system? Are we going to let the dozen people, even a thousand people plant the seeds of fear and mistrust ruining the wonderful garden of 330 million we call America? For the very, very few heinous crimes that are committed in our great nation, shall we allow these events to define our communities?
We are Americans; we are all brothers and sisters, we as Americans need to come together in love and trust. We can build and better this great nation through love and trust, the seeds of fear and mistrust will only tear down this great nation. We must bring to justice to those people who have committed crimes. We need to respect each other, we are all created equal, we all have the same worth, it is the basis and foundation for healing and love. We must forgive each other our transgressions; we must come together as a country based upon truths, the greatest truth and law being love.
