America can do better

Violence, like it or not, is a very human condition. It’s how we assert ourselves and establish dominance over “others.” Violence doesn’t need to involve a gun or a brawl, and it doesn’t even need to be illegal or socially unacceptable. Slavery is violence. Hazing is violence. So are book burning, real estate red lining, and social media heckling. Lies can be a form of violence when weaponized against others. Violence does not need to be physical but it certainly leaves scars since the ultimate rationale for violence is to determine winners and losers.

Consequently, every great nation, every great faith, that has ever wanted to establish and consolidate power and authority has done so with forms of violence. No great and lasting culture has ever grown up in a peaceful vacuum, having always expanded at the expense of someone else. Pushing indigenous cultures, non-natives, and those who think differently to the sidelines, the ascending culture establishes its own sacred texts and dogma, insisting that their beliefs are inherently “better” than any others. This dogma allows for the crushing of dissent and the demonization of non-believers.

Yet throughout history we find that for dominant cultures to endure, violence isn’t enough. There must be a reevaluation and rejection of their violent past, and a desire for reformation. Reaching these cultural inflection points, a society must choose. Choose between the path of doing things the way they’ve always been done, based on a romanticized past, or choose the path of introspection and analysis of where the culture is going, regardless of where it has been. This second path, the one that challenges and makes people uncomfortable, is the one toward reformation. The one where the culture is preserved, but altered to meet the changing realities of the new era.

America has been at this crossroads before. Before our nation was born and during the Civil War. And we’ve come back to that crossroads again. Today, millions of our friends and neighbors cling desperately to a big lie, as well as a series of smaller yet still consequential lies, perpetrated by one of our two major political parties, and they do this as a defense against having to face the prospect of an American reformation. They cling to the lies, disinformation and misdirection because to not do so, to admit that times have changed and that America must change with it, is to acknowledge the violence in our history.

It’s no secret that colonization of America directly or indirectly

This nation must confront the reality that in many ways it was founded on violence against others, and in many ways continues to do so.

led to the death of 90 percent of the natives. Yet there are people who don’t want this discussed in schools. It’s no secret that American business and industry owes an enormous debt to the sweat and blood of enslaved and indentured people. And still we feel the need to celebrate those who subjugated their fellow man in the name of “preserving our heritage.” Certain Americans are demonized for loving others the “wrong” way. Women used to be seen and not heard, and still they cannot even maintain dominion over their own bodies. The Irish were not welcome, the Japanese were interred “for their safety,” and everyone whispers about the Jews. These are all acts of violence, some just louder than others.

This nation must confront the reality that in many ways it was founded on violence against others, and in many ways continues to do so. But an American reformation needn’t be a canceling of our past, rather a recognition that it’s time we acknowledge where we came from and announce to ourselves and the world that we’re ready do better.

Unfortunately, today’s Republican Party would rather preserve deeply held mythologies of American exceptionalism instead of building a new American century, and they’ve made it clear they’ll resort to violence to do so. They’ll reject science, education and inclusion, and gin up scary false narratives rather than uplift anyone outside their culture. They accept lies because to reject them, reject the dogma and embrace change, would mean accepting responsibility, recognizing there are no alternative facts and acknowledging that what may have been OK in the past may not be right for tomorrow. A proud future begins with declaring independence from the shackles of our past.