OPPRESSION

If you are new to this blog, I want you to first welcome you and second, let you know that most of the themes of these posts in some manner relate to my book series, The Senses Novels. Today, I want to talk about oppression, as it exists in the books and in the here-and-now.

Throughout the series, we see the decline of the human population. It starts out slowly and then gains speed as we begin to race toward the ultimate climax of the novels, and I promise you, there is a definite conclusion to the series. Mankind is herded in camps, starved, and tormented. In short, we become an oppressed species as a whole.

So, what exactly is oppression? The dictionary defines it this way, “prolonged cruel or unjust treatment or control.” In the past and even today, we play ‘tricks’ with ourselves to justify oppression. Every race, creed, and color has suffered through some kind of persecution in their history.

In the United States, we continuously have one group or another screaming that they are being oppressed. African-Americans, Christians, Native-Americans, it is always someone. When I hear them, I look to see if their condition fits the definition. This is going to make a lot of people that I know angry. To-date, at least in modern times, I haven’t seen it.

African-Americans are not oppressed today. They are a minority in America, but as Americans, they have the same opportunities as anyone, even if they don’t want to admit it. I don’t care what study says what, if you go to school, get a degree, can speak eloquently and conduct yourself with decorum, you can achieve almost any goal in this country. The same thing applies to any minority.

The problem we are facing isn’t one of oppression, it is lack of moral and ethical character. I will put it as simply as I can, I DON’T OWE YOU ANYTHING. Nothing at all. Nada, zip, zero, zots. I contribute, and I give because I care, not because I have to. While there are groups in this country that think I should, for some reason, feel guilty about things I had no part in, they are wrong, and I don’t.

I don’t owe my African-American neighbors anything except to be a good neighbor, which I try to do. I don’t owe the Chinese nationals and naturalized citizens that I work with anything except to be a good co-worker and boss, which I make a valiant attempt at. There is no minority group that I owe a thing to, not even my respect unless they have earned it. I pay my own way in this world. Nothing has been given to me or my family, I’ve worked my entire life for it. If you are a minority that is feeling persecuted, you need to ask yourself by whom and why?

In the case of the African-American, the answers are slavery and racism. Two centuries of slavery have left this festering hatred (yes hatred) in some that will never go away. Why? I’m pretty sure that no one left alive today was ever a slave in the United States (at least, not legally in any way.) I have Jewish ancestry; do you know how long and by how many people Jews were slaves? Well, I can honestly say that I don’t hate the Egyptians, Greeks or Romans (Italians today.) I know, I’m white, so it doesn’t count, right?

I do not and have never believed that any race was or is inferior to another. I grew up watching the original Star Trek, I think racism is just plain stupid. I have never met a baby, black, white, red, brown or yellow that didn’t need to be held, loved and have their diaper changed. We were all babies once. Do you really hate babies? I’ve raised black children and white children. Do you know the difference? Neither do I.

Racism exists, ask someone like Mel Gibson, he’s a rabid anti-Semite by all indications. I don’t hate Mr. Gibson, I feel sorry for someone that ignorant, who thinks that he is a Christian, when the truth is, he doesn’t even realize that he must hate his own Savior. I will tell you what isn’t true, it isn’t true that all Democrats are NOT racists, plenty of them are. Political affiliation has nothing to do with ignorance and hate. Just as skin color doesn’t determine if you are a racist or not. If you hate someone for no other reason than the color of their skin, you are a racist, I don’t care what ethnicity you are.

When I see groups like ‘black lives matter’ (no, they don’t deserve capitalization), all I see is a hate group, no better than the neo-nazi groups or kkk (none of them deserve capitalization.) When I see or hear our elected officials jumping into the fray to defend the actions of a violent minority, I see the same thing that led to the rise of Hitler. In short, I see people preparing to oppress someone else.

Right now, today, the talk is all about better gun control. Frankly, the people in D.C. don’t like any civilians (and some police) having guns. It scares them, and they will look to exploit every tragedy to try to limit and eventually remove firearms from the hands of citizens. The 2^nd Amendment was put in place to make sure that the citizens of this country could force the government out if need be. That is again, a simple truth. Read it for yourself:

A well regulated Militia, being necessary to the security of a free State, the right of the people to keep and bear Arms, shall not be infringed.

The idea was, we had just thrown off one oppressive government, how were we going to make sure that we didn’t get another one? Governments, by nature of their very existence, tend to become more oppressive over time. Every added law, rule or tax is one more burden laid upon the people. ALL GOVERNMENTS DO THIS. I don’t care if you call yourself a Democracy, Socialist, or Communist, in the end, it is about control of the populace, oppression.

Will the day come when everyone in the United States sees the kind of oppression that is described in my novels? All I can say is, history does tend to repeat itself. From February 19, 1942, through March 20, 1946, as many as 120,000 Japanese-Americans were sent to camps in the United States of America for fear that some might collaborate with the people that had just attacked Pearl Harbor. These were American citizens, rounded up and locked away for nothing more than their ancestry. Can anyone know who will be next or why?

KM