Morality: principles concerning the distinction between right and wrong or good and bad behavior. (Webster’s Dictionary). (Or: normatively to refer to a code of conduct that, given specified conditions, would be put forward by all rational people. Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy).
The definition of morality as a whole is important, but words that stick out to me most are right at the end, “rational people.”
In our current state of being here in the U.S. it’s quite easy to see how morality seems to be such a fluid concept among us. As with any conflict, both sides will see themselves as the hero. Righteousness, stops being just an idea and grows into a weapon. Both sides can be right and both sides can be wrong, but in the case of Black Lives Matter and the 2020 election there is no real gray area. There are people who are upholding the truths of morality and then there are people who are trying to fabricate the definition of morality in order to maintain or gain more power.
Morality, isn’t something to be fabricated. It’s not something that can be claimed to be an “alternative truth”. An alternative morality is anti morality.
The system in which the U.S. was founded is not perfect, we need it to be revamped throughout the course of time. Nothing in history, in any country’s standing, has ever been forever. Kingdoms have fallen for the better of the people, regimes have been dismantled, dictators have been eliminated. No country is exempt from necessary changes for the betterment of all of the world. Unfortunately, many here in the U.S. have become too drunk on the illusion of “American freedom” that they react belligerently to anyone who challenges their thinking.
Much of the country, however, is drunk on something far easier to obtain than alcohol: a collective ego. It’s something that can spread quickly, like a wild fire, or a hurricane, or a virus. All of which we’ve been victims of in America but can’t even focus on coming out of them alive because the frequently failing leadership has continued to make it impossible to be alive if you’re anything other than a white conservative person.
This nation was founded on a principle of choices but in our elections only two parties maintain dominance. So, many American’s this 2020 election are feeling like we have to decide between “two evils” with many asking, “Why are two evils the only options?”
Now with the election drawing closer, the Republican party is making it more and more obvious that all they truly want is more power over the country. F#$k the people. Power and money is what they crave, not equality and “justice for all”.
Cops are still getting away with murder, children and immigrant families are still being detained and now sterilized sexually, and a majority of the information Trump touts is given to him from third parties or Fox news. There’s been absolutely no plan set in motion by he or Republicans to help get the American people back on track once we (fingers crossed) finally get Covid-19 subdued enough to begin to fall into our new normality.
Maybe the founding fathers had the best of intentions when they wrote the Constitution, but still maybe we truly need a fresh start in the country. A fresh start where Native American people are actually given a proper space in the White House or throughout branches of government to help lead this country into a truly better and more inclusive future. One where we can better cultivate the land and not dominate it with our presence.
A fresh start where people are actually seen as people, regardless of sexual orientation or skin color. One where we can come together and learn every part of our separate and collective history, without leaving things out for the sake of power. A fresh start where everyone has a voice, children to adult, human, animals and plants. A fresh start where nothing that’s part of the world is made to be insignificant.
What we need is to understand our morality, the lack thereof and the truth in its potential in our society as a whole. We don’t need to label everything, to try and separate people and ideas into categories just to make it easier to discriminate against them. Morality, just needs to be part of our everyday life.
The fact that people are treated like garbage in many places around the world should be enough to make all of us stop and question what kind of world we’ve been living in while asking, “What kind of a world do we all deserve to live in?”
It honestly shouldn’t be a hard question to answer. Just as morality shouldn’t be a hard concept to accept into our overall way of life.
No amount of property is worth more than one human life. No amount of property is worth more than any form of life on earth.
Money, for a long time has been the “thing” that makes the world go round. But, just imagine, truly imagine, what would it be like if morality was the thing valued most in life. The character of being was finally seen as the priceless essence it is and not disregarded as some “lollipop dream” that only succeeded in clogging the oil pipe dreams of billionaires.
That’s the fight I feel we’re in now. That’s what we’re truly fighting for here. It spans far beyond politics and money, and far passed any one person’s visions and perceptions. We fight for the future. The future of human life, yes, but more than anything, we fight this fight for the future of life itself.
