Is America a Land of Violence and Hate? – Xenophobia

10 Oct 2026 2 Comments

by Dr. John Persico Jr. in Uncategorized Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , ,

What the hell is Xenophobia?  Whenever I have used this word, this is a common question I get asked.  Ironically, it is a very common behavior in America.  You would think that everyone knew exactly what it means.  On any given day in the USA, there are examples of Xenophobia in the news. 

Now I pride myself on doing blog posts that will appeal to the average person.  No big words that only someone with a Ph.D. can understand.  Yet here I am using a word that perhaps a large percent of Americans would not know what it means.  So, I guess that it is time to pull the curtain back and “give it up.” 

Xenophobia is the irrational fear, hatred, or dislike of people from other countries, cultures, or backgrounds who are perceived as foreign or strange.

Key Characteristics

  • Origin: The word comes from the ancient Greek words xenos (meaning “stranger” or “guest”) and phobos (meaning “fear” or “flight”). It first appeared in English in the late 19th century.
  • In-Group vs. Out-Group: It is built on the mental division of people into an “in-group” (those who belong) and an “out-group” (outsiders viewed as a threat).
  • Common Triggers: It often spikes during economic hardship, political instability, or rapid social and demographic changes, where outsiders are used as scapegoats for local problems.
  • Manifestations: It can lead to social exclusion, verbal harassment, discrimination, institutional policies against migrants, or violence.

A Xenophobe is a person who strongly dislikes, distrusts, or fears people perceived as  foreigners, strangers, or members of a different culture or nation.

How often have you heard people say “This is America, speak English” or “If you don’t like it here go back to your own country?” 

Let’s break this definition of Xenophobia down further:

In-Group vs. Out-Group:

My team, my church, my religion, my God, my beliefs, my group, my club, my race, my ethnic group is better than your group.  In fact, my group is so much better than your group, that I think we need to eliminate your group from America. 

The thinking that underlies the belief that my group is superior can lead to the idea that violence is justified so as to eliminate your group.  In some cases, this will mean taking the rights away from other people.  In the extreme it can mean denial of basic rights, expulsion, physical attacks or murder.  History has repeatedly shown us a progression of violence against others that goes from stereotyping, to blame, to tolerating humiliation of others, to denying fair treatment and sometimes ending in violence.  Think Nazi Germany. 

If you have been paying attention, you will notice that people we call racists, bigots, sexists all share many of the characteristics of Xenophobia. 

Xenophobia, racism, sexism, and Homophobia can share common biases and reinforce one another, while targeting different characteristics.  However, there are some substantive differences between Xenophobia and Racism as well as between Xenophobia and Sexism and Xenophobia and Homophobia.  For instance:

Xenophobia vs. Racism

  • Xenophobia focuses on a person’s nationality, culture, or foreign status (the idea that someone is an “outsider” who does not belong).
  • Racism is a belief system that judges an individual’s worth or capabilities based on fixed physical attributes like skin color or racial category.
  • While they often overlap and feed into each other, a person can experience or display them independently.

Xenophobia vs. Sexism

Xenophobia and sexism are both forms of systemic prejudice and discrimination, but they differ fundamentally in their targets, origins, and expressions.  Xenophobia targets people based on their nationality, geographic origin, or cultural foreignness, whereas sexism targets individuals based on their sex or gender identity.

Xenophobia vs. Homophobia

Xenophobia and Homophobia are both forms of systematic prejudice rooted in an irrational aversion to a specific group, but they target entirely different aspects of identity and operate on different social dynamics.  While Xenophobia targets a person’s geographic, national, or cultural origin, Homophobia targets a person’s sexual orientation.

Shared Similarities between Xenophobia and other Prejudices:

  • Scapegoating:  Minorities, women, gay people and immigrants are frequently scapegoated by political or social movements during times of societal stress to deflect attention from structural problems.

Now one might well ask, well how much Xenophobia actually exists in the USA today or perhaps how many Xenophobic people are there in the USA?   Here is what my AI assistant gave me in response to this question.

SurveyFindingWhat it tells us
PRRI, March 2026 report33% agreed that “Immigrants are invading our country and replacing our cultural and ethnic background”; 62% disagreed.A substantial minority endorses a belief I would interpret as a strong indicator of xenophobic attitudes.
Gallup, June 202621% said immigration is bad for the country; 73% said it is good.Most Americans favor immigration overall.  The negative response alone does not establish prejudice.

PRRI: Immigration Enforcement, ICE, and Civil Liberties in the Second Trump Administration — March 26, 2026.  Source for the 33% agreement with the invasion-and-cultural-replacement statement.

Gallup: Americans’ Support for Immigration Down, Still Strong — Source for the June 2026 findings: 73% said immigration is good for the country; 21% said it is bad.

My best assessment is Xenophobia affects tens of millions of Americans and has considerable political significance, but the evidence does not support calling most Americans xenophobic. We can measure the prevalence of specific hostile beliefs much more confidently than we can count “xenophobic people.”

Conclusions:

I would like to leave you with three questions.  If we can create one iota of doubt in even a few of the people out there who exhibit some of the hostilities I have discussed we would have made some progress. 

No one is born Xenophobic.  Many of us welcome meeting new people, experiencing new cultures, talking with people who are not “just like we are” or people who “do not belong to our clan or church or group.”  

Just like Racism, Sexism and Homophobia, Xenophobia is learned.  Something that is learned can be unlearned.  But it takes developing some empathy and compassion for all people.  The Baháʼí believe in the Unity of all humanity.  We are all one people on the face of the earth trying our best to do what we can to lead a decent life and create a good future for our children. 

Xenophobia is a virulent disease.  It spreads from one Xenophobe to another.  It becomes  a group identity and a safe haven from having to question one’s own prejudices. 

An open Democratic society is not a society that is without risks. 

In the “Parable of the Good Samaritan”, the Samaritan gave aid to a wounded traveler thought to be Jewish.  First-century Jews and Samaritans were divided by deep religious and historical hostility.  The Samaritan gave his own money and time to help the victim with no guarantee that he would be paid back.  The Samaritan crossed a boundary of prejudice to help someone outside his own group.

Three Questions:

  • How do you think people coming to this country for a better life feel when they are told “Go back to where you belong, we don’t want you here?”
  • How do you think people who belong to a different group than you do feel when they are told they are dirty, dangerous and unclean or worthless?
  • What do you think Jesus would say to an immigrant who needed asylum or to a Gay person who simply wanted to be treated like other people? 

Is America a Land of Violence and Hate? –  Racial and Ethnic Violence

27 Sep 2026 14 Comments

by Dr. John Persico Jr. in Uncategorized Tags: , , , , , , , , , ,

I will start this blog with a caveat.  Racial and ethnic violence exists all over the world.  It always has but the past does not have to predict the future.

When I went to Japan, I was turned away one night from a club by a doorman who said, “No Gaijin allowed.”  In Hawaii, I was warned that Haoles were not welcome at certain beaches by natives.  In parts of Mexico, I will be derided as a Gringo.  In Europe for centuries, Jews have been persecuted and discriminated against. 

My experiences differ enormously in severity from many people who face racism and ethnic violence in America, but they illustrate how people all over the world often draw boundaries between insiders and outsiders. 

Prejudice and discrimination were not invented in America, and neither was racism.  Nevertheless, in the Land of the Free and a country that prides itself on liberty, we should show the world what tolerance and inclusiveness mean.  Instead, we talk one game while we walk another game.  How many remember these words inscribed on the Statue of Liberty’s pedestal?

The New Colossus — By Emma Lazarus

Not like the brazen giant of Greek fame,

With conquering limbs astride from land to land;

Here at our sea-washed, sunset gates shall stand

A mighty woman with a torch, whose flame

Is the imprisoned lightning, and her name

Mother of Exiles. From her beacon-hand

Glows world-wide welcome; her mild eyes command

The air-bridged harbor that twin cities frame.

“Keep, ancient lands, your storied pomp!” cries she

With silent lips.  “Give me your tired, your poor,

Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free,

The wretched refuse of your teeming shore.

Send these, the homeless, tempest-tost to me,

I lift my lamp beside the golden door!”

Who approved these words?  Did the Republicans approve them?  Did the Democrats approve them?  Or was it some radical group of communists and atheists who approved them?

Do our actions today with ICE and our immigration activities look like we are living these words?  If not, would you be in favor of removing them from the statue?  Wouldn’t it be more honest? 

Do we still want the huddled masses?  Do we really want the wretched refuse from other countries? 

What are our excuses for the present way we are treating immigrants?  

This brings us to racism.  There are many who want America to be a White nation.  A nation of European Whites. 

Approximately 388,000 enslaved Africans arrived directly in mainland North America (the future United States) during the transatlantic slave trade, with an estimated 1.8 to 2 million people dying on the ships during the Middle Passage globally.

Do you think these people wanted to come to the USA? 

For those who survived the crossing, the abuse continued after they reached American shores.

It did not stop after the Civil War. 

It did not stop after World War 1 or after World War 2. 

It did not stop after the Civil Rights marches in the sixties or even after the Civil Rights Act was passed in 1964. 

It has continued with restrictive voting laws.

States like North Carolina, Texas, Georgia, and Florida have enacted various combinations of laws implementing stricter voter ID requirements, reducing early voting days, limiting ballot drop boxes, and restricting assistance with mail-in ballots.

Critics and civil rights groups argue that these voting measures intentionally target minority voters.

Discrimination continues based on race in this country. 

Arizona passed and signed the “stop to see your papers” law (Senate Bill 1070) on April 23, 2010.  This law targeted many Latino citizens who were living legally in the USA. 

The law was never rescinded but under the terms of a 2016 settlement with immigrant rights groups, officers are strictly prohibited from prolonging any traffic stop or detention solely to investigate a person’s immigration status.

In an effort to overcome the impact of nearly 250 years of legal slavery in the colonies and the United States, the US Government and many private organizations developed what were called Affirmative Action and Diversity Programs. 

Many people saw these programs as a hand up to Blacks and other historically excluded groups, including Native Americans, Women, Asian Americans, Latinos and disabled people. 

Other Americans saw these programs as unfair and a handout rather than a hand up.

I asked my AI assistant, whom I call Metis, to examine the research.  AI can make mistakes and reflect biases, so its conclusions deserve the same scrutiny as anyone else’s.  Judge this assessment by the studies behind it.

“Affirmative action and diversity programs have helped address the economic consequences of racism and exclusion. Research documents employment and educational benefits for historically excluded groups in several important settings. However, programs varied, and some diversity initiatives achieved little measurable improvement.

Research tracking more than 100,000 private firms found that affirmative action increased Black and Native American employment shares among federal contractors. These gains persisted even after firms stopped holding federal contracts. Recruitment, mentoring, and fairer advancement practices also helped women enter management and careers previously difficult to access.

In education, research on California’s affirmative action ban found that ending the policy reduced underrepresented applicants’ degree attainment and subsequent average earnings, with earnings losses driven by Hispanic applicants. In that setting, estimated benefits to underrepresented applicants exceeded the costs to white and Asian applicants at the admissions margin.

People with disabilities benefited from a related but distinct approach: workplace accessibility and accommodations. Employer surveys suggest that many accommodations cost little or nothing and can improve retention and productivity.

The broader economic argument is straightforward: excluding capable people wastes talent. America benefits when more people can develop their abilities and contribute. However, we cannot attribute all progress by women and minorities to affirmative action; education, antidiscrimination protections, and other social changes also mattered.

There were drawbacks. Preferences could disadvantage individual white or Asian applicants competing for limited opportunities. Programs could benefit relatively affluent minority applicants while overlooking economically disadvantaged people from other groups. Beneficiaries sometimes faced unfair doubts about their qualifications, and poorly designed initiatives could generate resentment.

Furthermore, diversity training did not necessarily change workplace behavior. Research suggests that mentoring, broader recruitment, and managerial involvement often accomplished more than brief training courses. Attendance at a seminar tells us little about whether hiring, pay, or promotion became fairer.

These limitations justify careful evaluation and improvement. They do not erase the economic gains or the injustice these programs sought to address.

Social justice requires attention to both historical discrimination and present economic disadvantage. Effective programs deserve support; ineffective ones deserve revision or replacement. Our goal should be institutions that recognize and develop talent wherever it exists and give people a fair opportunity to build secure lives.”

The real truth is that racism and ethnic discrimination exist not only because some people are narrow minded, bigoted, xenophobic and fear that other groups will take away what little they may have.  Racism exists because some people benefit from the exploitation of other people. 

Generosity towards those not in their tribe or clan is not a characteristic of the racist bigots in this country.

There are three attitudes that I believe help sustain racism:

  1. Xenophobia:  the intense fear, dislike, or hatred of people perceived as foreigners, strangers, or outsiders.  Xenophobia and racism overlap, but racism can also target people whose families have lived in the same country for generations.
  2. Resentment:  Fear that others will either take something that they perceive as belonging to their group only or fear that others will get something that they do not get.
  3. Narrow Mindedness: 
    1. Intolerance of difference: Showing strong dislike or judgment toward people who hold different values, religions, or political views.
    1. Absolute certainty: Believing that one’s own opinions are absolute facts and that no other perspective could possibly be valid.
    1. Lack of curiosity: Showing no interest in learning why other people think or act differently.
    1. Quick dismissal: Rejecting new facts or arguments immediately without taking the time to understand them.

Conclusions:

Let’s conclude with the original question.  Is America a Land of Hate, Racism and Ethnic Violence? 

For 2025, law enforcement agencies reported 10,881 hate crime incidents to the FBI. Among victims of single-bias incidents, 55.6% were targeted because of race, ethnicity, or ancestry.

Although these figures demonstrate a serious problem, they do not, by themselves, establish the character of an entire country.

I do think they suggest that we still have a serious responsibility as citizens of a Democracy to help prevent any group from being targeted by violence regardless of their race, skin color, political or religious beliefs.

America has a history of racial cruelty and a history of people who fought that cruelty.

Which history are you helping to carry forward?

When someone is demeaned because of race, religion, or birthplace, do you challenge it, excuse it, or remain silent?

Our answers matter most in what we all do next.

My thanks to Metis, my ChatGPT AI assistant, for research support, fact-checking, and thoughtful editorial suggestions. The opinions expressed and final editorial decisions are my own.

Here are some of the studies that Metis based the above research on. 

  1. Kurtulus, F. A. (2016). The impact of affirmative action on the employment of minorities and women: A longitudinal analysis using three decades of EEO-1 filings. Journal of Policy Analysis and Management, 35(1), 34–66. https://doi.org/10.1002/pam.21881
  2. Miller, C. (2017). The persistent effect of temporary affirmative action. American Economic Journal: Applied Economics, 9(3), 152–190. https://doi.org/10.1257/app.20160121
  3. Bleemer, Z. (2022). Affirmative action, mismatch, and economic mobility after California’s Proposition 209. The Quarterly Journal of Economics, 137(1), 115–160. https://doi.org/10.1093/qje/qjab027
  4. Kalev, A., Dobbin, F., & Kelly, E. (2006). Best practices or best guesses? Assessing the efficacy of corporate affirmative action and diversity policies. American Sociological Review, 71(4), 589–617. https://doi.org/10.1177/000312240607100404
  5. Holzer, H. J., & Neumark, D. (2000). What does affirmative action do? Industrial and Labor Relations Review, 53(2), 240–271. https://doi.org/10.1177/001979390005300204
  6. Job Accommodation Network. (n.d.). Costs and benefits of accommodations. https://askjan.org/topics/costs.cfm

When “Parental Rights” Become a Weapon

07 Jun 2026 8 Comments

by Dr. John Persico Jr. in Uncategorized Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

If you are expecting a blog filled with civility toward those who persecute others, you may be disappointed.  There are some issues that stir my anger, and the mistreatment of Gay and Trans people is one of them.

I am talking about those so called citizens, neighbors, relatives, clergy, patriots, politicians, and even friends who mistreat and harass Gays and Trans people.  Gays and Trans already have a very difficult life.  They are seldom involved in any violent crimes against others.  Many of them hide their proclivities away because it will cost them friends, love and even their lives.  The amount of violence against Gays and Trans far transcends the overall levels of violence in our society.

GroupAnnual violent victimization rate
LGBT people106.4 victimizations per 1,000 people (10.6%)
Non-LGBT people21.1 victimizations per 1,000 people (2.1%)
Transgender people93.7 victimizations per 1,000 people (9.4%)

 LGBT people overall experienced violent victimization at roughly 5 times the rate of non-LGBT people.  For transgender people, the rates of violent assaults are over 4 times the rate for Non-LGBT people.  Before anyone dismisses this data as politics, remember that behind every statistic is a human being who simply wanted to live their life in peace.

How would you like to be minding your own business and a group of our stalwart citizens who do not think you should exist decides to beat the hell out of you.  I grew up on a street corner where on Fridays nights if the Navy ships were in at the docks, some guys would take it on their own to go down and “Roll” a few Gays.  It was well known that some Gay men would hang around the docks on Friday nights if the ships were in. 

I am proud that I never joined in “Rolling a Gay”.  My father was a WWII decorated veteran with a Bronze Star and a Purple Heart.  He was 6’4” tall and became a professional boxer when he left the military.  He had served in Paton’s 3rd Army on the drive up from Sicily to Germany.  He was a mean SOB and tough as nails.  My friends would not come over to my house because they were all afraid of my father.  My father was always getting in fights.  Once on a visit to where my father eventually ended up working (the US Post Office) his supervisor took me aside and told me that my father was a great worker, but he would never get promoted.  He said, “your dad is always getting in fights.”  My father would not tolerate taking shit from anyone. 

My father became Commander of one of the American Legion posts in Brooklyn.  One night he was taking the days money for food and drinks to the local bank drop after the Legion Post had closed.  It was probably after 11 PM or so.  Four local hoods tried to attack him on the way and take the bag of money away from him.  He beat the “you know what” out of all four of them and waited until some passerby called the cops.  He turned them over to the police.  Somehow a NYC newspaper got word of this and wrote the story up a week or so later. 

As mean and hard as my father was, he had no use for anyone picking on someone.  He would not tolerate anyone hurting someone smaller than they were or less able to protect themselves.  One day, he heard me use the word nigger.  He grabbed me by the back of my neck and brought me over to the kitchen sink.  He turned the water on and picked up a bar of soap.  He shoved the soap in my face and told me that if he ever heard me use that word again, he would wash my mouth out with this bar of soap.  I know he meant it because he was not shy of using the belt on me when I was growing up.

I never did measure up to my father’s standards.  He was disappointed that I never grew past my 5’ 8” inch height.  I went in the military right after high school.  I wanted to go to Vietnam and fight the evil communists.  Every time I came home, my dad would measure me to see if I grew any.  I never did.

My dad had many problems.  Overall, I would say he was not a good man or a good dad.  But he did teach me to HATE bullies and to step in whenever I saw a bully picking on someone.  My dad always told me “Don’t worry about how big they are.  Go in swinging.  The bigger they are they harder they will fall.”  I ended up having too many fights myself.  But I am proud that like my dad I always fought bullies and I never picked on the underdog or anyone smaller than I was.   

FILE PHOTO: LGBT activists and supporters hold a rally outside the U.S. Supreme Court as it hears arguments in a major LGBT rights case

Now we seem to have a nation of bullies who pick on Gays and Trans.  People who mind their own business but have different sexual orientation than the mainstream of so called “Normal” people.  “Normal” people promote their healthy sexual lifestyles and “family” orientations to the press and public while hiding their “abnormal” and even deviant behaviors. 

Hardly a day goes by when some “Normal” person who seems to lead an accepted lifestyle by “Normal” standards is then caught in bed with someone who should have been off-limits.  Or worse, we are constantly finding “Normal” people who turn out to be pedophiles that prey on young children in their off hours. 

But there is another danger in our society.  Politicians, ministers, and others who want to take away the rights from people who are not like them or who do not practice their religious beliefs or sexual orientation.  We are told the Bible bans and censors homosexual lifestyles by these religious zealots who claim to lead their own lives by the Bible.  It is easy to use the Bible to justify your own beliefs.  A book written by many people over centuries in which you can find justification for anything you want to do.  It is full of exhortations to kill people that few would be stupid or evil enough to endorse today. 

Here are some examples of biblical laws and commands that most modern Christians do not follow literally:

1. Stoning Rebellious Children

“If someone has a stubborn and rebellious son… all the men of his town are to stone him to death.”
— Deuteronomy 21:18–21

Virtually no modern Christian advocates carrying out this law, despite some citing Old Testament laws regarding homosexuality.

2. Executing Adulterers

“The adulterer and the adulteress shall surely be put to death.”
— Leviticus 20:10

3. Executing People Who Work on the Sabbath

“Whoever does any work on the Sabbath day shall surely be put to death.”
— Exodus 31:15

4. Women Speaking in Church

“Women should remain silent in the churches.”
— 1 Corinthians 14:34

5. Selling Daughters

Exodus 21:7 discusses a father selling his daughter into servitude.

Recently a group called America First Legal founded by Stephen Miller one of Trump’s top sycophants has come up with a new way to attack Gay and Trans people.  He is out to find a way to punish teachers who allegedly conceal  information from parents regarding the sexual orientation of their elementary school children.  He wants a bill that would require teachers to alert parents regarding their children’s transgender identities or activities in elementary schools. What kind of a human being would suggest a policy like this?  He claims to be an advocate of Parental Rights.  Whatever his stated purpose, the practical effect of his policy is to place vulnerable children under suspicion and subject them to scrutiny that many other children will never face.

I taught every grade from nursery to Ph.D. programs in my 50 plus years of teaching.  I taught two years in elementary grades 1 to 3.  My undergraduate degree in Health Education included a license to teach K-12 grade.  In my years working in elementary schools, I never saw any behavior that I would want to report to parents.  Did boys play with dolls?  Did girls play with trucks?  Were some girls more querulous than boys?  Were some boys more timid than girls?  If you have ever been around children 6-8 years old, you would certainly know the answer to these questions. What kind of a person would start requiring teachers to monitor such behavior, label it as deviant and then report it to school administrators and parents.  I cannot imagine in all my fifty years of teaching being given that responsibility or added duty to my teaching obligations.  I taught all my students equally.  I was there to teach morals, ethics and ideas, not decide who needed to be outed or who was Gay or Trans.   

Let’s look at Stephen Miller for a moment to see what he supports and does not support.  He claims to be supporting Parental Rights which is a pronouncement full of “mom, god and apple pie” thoughts for most Americans.  But is he really a man who cares for the children as well as the parents?

Stephen Miller became nationally known as one of the principal architects of the Trump administration’s hard-liner immigration policies, including travel restrictions, aggressive deportation initiatives, and the 2018 family-separation policy at the border.  Even many conservatives who support stricter immigration enforcement acknowledge that he tends to favor maximalist approaches rather than compromise.

I repeat that this is the man who supported family separation, sought to restrict DACA, challenged LGBTQ protections, and now wants schools involved in monitoring children’s gender identity. You decide whether this sounds like someone primarily concerned with the well-being of vulnerable children.

His critics point to:

  • Family separation at the border.
  • Attempts to end or restrict DACA protections.
  • Travel bans affecting predominantly Muslim countries.
  • Efforts to challenge diversity, equity, and inclusion programs.
  • Litigation aimed at rolling back various LGBTQ protections.

His supporters would respond that:

  • He is defending national sovereignty.
  • He is defending equal treatment under the law.
  • He is opposing what he sees as unlawful race-based preferences and government overreach.
  • He is protecting parental rights.

My assessment

If I were trying to predict Miller’s motivation based on his overall record, I would not start from the assumption that his primary concern is the psychological well-being of transgender youth.  For a man who is against government overreach he has no problem with it when it comes to the government stepping in to tell the schools how they should be run.

If you think this man is out to help parents, that is your prerogative.  But judging by his actions and not his words, he is hiding behind a mirror of Parental Rights to push a religious agenda that is against Gay and Trans rights.  

Do not expect me to believe that a sycophant like Miller is out to help American children or parents of children who do not fit in with societal norms.    

You might as well ask me to believe that a rattlesnake is fun to cuddle up with. 

I Lost White Friends When I Finally Spoke Out

26 Mar 2024 3 Comments

by Dr. John Persico Jr. in Uncategorized Tags: , , , , , ,

Story by LeRon L. Barton

I found this article this morning and thought it was well worth sharing.  It is most thought provoking and speaks to the ongoing effort to rid our nation of Racism.  I have heard many people say “Why can’t we forget color” or “Why can’t we all get along.”   I think a deeper understanding of Racism in the USA brings more depth to such questions.  We have examples of race hatred and hatred for others all over the world that has gone on for centuries. 

Sometimes this hatred is based on race and sometimes on religion, gender or ideology.  At the core of most hatred is a lack of understanding.  A lack of compassion for those with different skins or thoughts.  A feeling that our IDEAS and our SKIN COLOR makes us better than others.  I think this article helps us all think about racism more deeply and what we can each do in our lives to eradicate this curse from humanity. 

download

I Lost White Friends When I Finally Spoke Out Story by LeRon L. Barton

The original article by Mr. Baron is followed by hundreds of comments.  Many agree with Mr. Barton and many disagree.  I have selected two comments that represent both sides of the disagreement.  What do you think?  

Sheener Homer

From reading this article, I truly believe that the author reached a turning point in his life. He finally realized who his real friends were. If individuals of different backgrounds loved, respected, and valued you as an individual, they would try to understand life from your perspective. In a world where a majority of the population despises Black people, it is important to instill Black pride in Black people. At times I feel like the world is governed by policies and beliefs that are designed to keep certain individuals oppressed. Sometimes it feels like when your views don’t match the majority, you are considered a “danger” or “militant”. It’s unfortunate. #TMC

Greg Franklin

“I believe that Black people live in a country that constantly tries to strangle every bit of self-respect, pride, individuality, love, and life out of them. It is an everyday challenge for us to maintain our mental health.” Patently false.  Too many Black people have made it in all walks of life, professional and blue collar.  We twice elected a Black president.  Years of affirmative action and DEI have made it easier to succeed.  This article, while well intended, is just another in a long line of articles showing an increasing racism villainizing white people.

Doing my morning run today, this is what I see in a neighbors yard. He lives four houses down from me. Do you suppose he served in the Civil War? His next door neighbor is a good friend of mine who is African American. I have often asked my friend how he deals with this. How do you think any Black person in this country deals with this? How would you deal with this?

Our Kind of People

31 May 2022 6 Comments

by Dr. John Persico Jr. in Uncategorized Tags: , , , , ,

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He’s not our kind of people.  She should stick to her own kind.  I don’t have anything against his kind, but I really think people belong with their own kind.  It’s like the saying, “birds of a feather stick together.”  I think people get along better with people who are more similar.  Like parrots with parrots and robins with robins.

I’m not prejudiced against anyone.  I have noticed that people seem happier when they are with people who are like them.  It’s a big world out there and its got room enough for everyone, so why should we crowd it?  Don’t you want everyone to be happy?

So if you like coke 

And you like dope

You’re my kind of people

(My kind of people)

You’re my kind of people

(My kind of people)  —- My Kind of People, CeeLo Green

 Why force people who are different to live with people who are not like them?  We would all got along better if like stayed with like.  You don’t mix salt and pepper or sugar and pepper so why mix people?  People are much happier when they are with people who have a great many similarities to them.  Fish eaters get along better with fish eaters and vegans get along better with vegans.

Stick-to-your-own-kind-...-or-not1-254x3001It’s not about racism or privilege but everyone should have a right to say who they have to live with and go to school with or church with.  I am all for equal rights for everyone and that includes my right to stick to my own kind.  Does that make me a racist because I like one group of people more than another?  We all have our baseball and football team preferences.  That is what makes sports so much fun.  I don’t have to like your team and you don’t have to like my team.  Teams stick together and play with their own kind.  You don’t see football players playing against baseball players or lacrosse players playing against rugby players.

“I’m waiting, for what, my kind of people, what kind is that?  I can tell my kind of people by their faces, by something in their faces.” — Ayn Rand

If you took a can of blue paint and red paint and yellow paint and mixed them all together, you would get something really strange.  If you blended the rainbow together, you would just get gray.  That would be boring and uninteresting.  You need to keep colors separate and then you get all of the beauty of the spectrum.  Keeping people with their own kind improves life for all since the colors do not fade.  Unless you get a tan and they never seem to last very long.

My kind of town, Chicago is

My kind of people, too — My Kind of Town, Frank Sinatra

imagesThat is why I am not a racist because I believe in the beauty of all colors.  I don’t think one color is more beautiful than another.  I prefer blue while I think my wife likes pink or green more.  I just think you don’t want to mix the colors too much or you lose the beauty.  It is also easier to clean a paint brush when you just use it for the same colors.  Have you ever tried to clean a paint brush that has been used on too many different colors?

A little rock and roll

A whole lot of soul

You’re my kind of people

(My kind of people)

You’re my kind of people

(My kind of people) — My Kind of People, CeeLo Green

kkk-chicago-flashback-0125-20150123-e1446548107862-2lw7l8q-1080x633Now I suppose some of you will still say that I am a racist or prejudiced and that nothing I can say will change your minds.  But I don’t dislike those kind of people, I just want to live with my kind of people and those kind of people can live with their own kind of people.

Don’t you think there would be less problems in the world if we all stuck with our own kind of people?  Listen to what the bible says:

Leviticus 19:19 “Keep my decrees.  Do not mate different kinds of animals.  Do not plant your field with two kinds of seed.  Do not wear clothing woven of two kinds of material.”

I have to show this to my wife because she wanted to get a Golden Doodle and now wants to buy an Aussie Doodle.  I guess the bible says no doodle for her unless she wants to buy a pure doodle whatever that is.

Aussiedoodle-1

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The above blog was inspired by my friend Kwame who was discussing race with someone who made the comment that we should all stick to our “own kind.”  The thought resonated with me since we have all heard it at one time or another repeated as a “code” for discrimination and disrespect.  “Stick to your own kind” sounds so benign but it is really a phrase full of hate and fear.

“It’s hard to be different,” Scarborough said.  “And perhaps the best answer is not to tolerate differences, not even to accept them.  But to celebrate them.  Maybe then those who are different would feel more loved, and less, well, tolerated.”  ― Bill Konigsberg, Openly Straight

John’s Top Ten Sleepless Night Questions  – This Past Week 😊

08 Feb 2022 9 Comments

by Dr. John Persico Jr. in Uncategorized Tags: , , , , , , , , , ,

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I woke up last night wondering and wondering and wondering.  A series of recent events had caused confusion and chaos in my sleepy mind.  I realize that I am no genius, but I could not stop thinking and pondering a number of questions which were continuing to nag me during the past week or so.  Maybe, in fact very likely, a number of my readers are much wiser than I am and can help me with my questions.  I would appreciate any thoughts that some of you might have on any of the following questions.  Your answers would help me to sleep better in the upcoming nights.

  1. How is rioting and destroying lives and property “Legitimate Political Discourse?”
  1. Why do peaceful civil rights protestors get beaten and arrested and scorned but Neo-Nazi groups are free to march and stage violent protests?
  1. How come we can use the RICO act to arrest and convict gamblers and drug dealers, but we can’t use it to arrest politicians who advocate or support the violent overthrow of the United States?
  1. Why can we send hit squads to take out terrorists in Syria and other parts of the Mideast, but we can’t send hit squads to Florida, Texas, and other parts of the USA to take out domestic terrorists?
  1. How come ISIS is an “official” terrorist group but the KKK, Proud Boys and Neo-Nazi groups are not terrorist groups?
  1. How come all the USA TV news on the Ukrainian Crisis constantly use military weapons, troops firing, howitzers blasting, tanks rumbling and other pictures of war as a backdrop to their news updates on the Ukrainian Crisis?

A video has been viewed tens of thousands of times in multiple social media posts in January 2022 alongside a claim it shows Ukrainian troops “preparing for potential combat” at the border with Russia. However, the video has circulated online since at least 2020 in a post by a Ukrainian military command about its troops conducting a military exercise.

7. How do we have time for a political discussion with Putin when the “analysts” say he is simply using the time to strengthen his military position?

8. Why has not one US politician from either party or end of the political spectrum commented on the beautiful moving opening ceremony and the spectacular technology displayed to date at the Chinese Winter Olympics?

9. Why are all the headlines in today’s news featuring negative comments about China and/or its role in the Olympics?  Some examples below from this mornings headlines:

  • Criticism of Zhu Yi, a US born skater, show harsh scrutiny of naturalized athletes in China – The New York Times
  • Teenage Olympic sensation Eileen Gu wins gold and crashes the Chinese Internet -CNN
  • Olympics put Chinese authorities’ press intimidation on full display – Axios
  • China’s holiday box office plunges by 23% as theaters push prices to record highs – CNBC
  • Beijing 2022: Winter Olympics hit by deluge of complaints from athletes -BBC
  • China stirs controversy with Uyghur torchbearer – The New Arab
  • Olympians accuse refs of bias after controversial penalties help China -Insider
  1. Why are US politicians more concerned about the rights of Uyghurs than they are about the rights of Blacks and minorities in America?

Does anyone in the USA know who or what a Uyghur is? Here this might help.

Who are the Uyghurs? — From the BBC World News

“There are about 12 million Uyghurs, mostly Muslim, living in Xinjiang, which is officially known as the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region (XUAR).

The Uyghurs speak their own language, which is similar to Turkish, and see themselves as culturally and ethnically close to Central Asian nations. They make up less than half of the Xinjiang population.

Recent decades have seen a mass migration of Han Chinese (China’s ethnic majority) into Xinjiang, allegedly orchestrated by the state to dilute the minority population there.

China has also been accused of targeting Muslim religious figures and banning religious practices in the region, as well as destroying mosques and tombs.

Uyghur activists say they fear that the group’s culture is under threat of erasure.”

The Xinjiang Conflict – Wikipedia

“Since the incorporation of Xinjiang into the People’s Republic of China, factors such as the mass state-sponsored migration of Han Chinese from the 1950s to the 1970s, government policies promoting Chinese cultural unity and punishing certain expressions of Uyghur identity, and harsh responses to separatism have contributed to tension between the Uyghurs, and state police and Han Chinese.  This has taken the form of both terrorist attacks and wider public unrest such as the Baren Township riot, 1997 Ürümqi bus bombings, protests in Ghuljia, June 2009 Shaoguan Incident and the resulting July 2009 Ürümqi riots, 2011 Hotan attack, April 2014 Ürümqi attack, May 2014 Ürümqi attack, 2014 Kunming attack as well as the 2015 Aksu colliery attack.  Other Uyghur organizations such as the World Uyghur Congress denounce totalitarianism, religious intolerance, and terrorism as an instrument of policy.”  — Wikipedia

Concluding Thoughts:

John Donne’s famous line, “Ask not for whom the bell tolls” strikes me as a good reason to pursue justice everywhere in the globe.  We should never be so comfortable that we tolerate injustice in any country whether friend or foe.  Nevertheless, we should be careful about waving a flag of righteous indignation as to the houses of other countries when our own house is far from being in order.  To do so, presents a ludicrous form of hypocrisy that is evident to the rest of the world.

We need to walk a fine line between advocating for the rights of others and stepping into a conflict that we have no legitimate right to be involved in.  There are 12 million Uyghurs who may be being persecuted because of their perceived separateness.  I wonder how many LGBTQ people, how many Indigenous People, how many Black people, how many women in the USA are being persecuted every day because of their differences?  The following charts depict some statistics in respect to my question.  The numbers seem to be going up each year rather than down.

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1_in_6_Women 122016

Silence is Not Golden

04 Dec 2021 4 Comments

by Dr. John Persico Jr. in Uncategorized Tags: , , , , , , , ,

Isabella-Faith-Tichenor

No one gets remembered for what they didn’t say.  If one wants to be remembered either they must do something worth remembering or they must say something worth remembering.  Non-fiction writers either write about something that they believe is worth being done or they write about someone who already did something that they thought was worth being done.

Of course, being remembered should not be the main point of life.  You can have a street named after you, a building named after you, a star named after you or hundreds of other items, but they are all ephemeral.  They will vanish sooner than the wind blows away.  They will melt away faster than butter.  Nothing in the world is really very permanent.  Bricks and bridges age and crumble.  Friends and lovers come and go.  Good deeds will be forgotten when you are gone as will bad deeds.  Life is mercurial, fickle, and impermanent.  Trying to be remembered is an exercise in wishful thinking.

We often try to hold onto life by buying, creating, acquiring, or building things.  The genius creates new theories.  The prodigy leaves people spellbound by their talent.  The entrepreneur designs new products and industries.  The philanthropist gives their money away.  We are all searching for something that will make us feel good about ourselves.  You cannot actually blame anyone since a humans’ life is quite short.

We may someday discover the meaning or purpose of our lives, but I doubt many people will do so before they die.  And even if they did, so what.  Will the world really be better that one man fought the unbeatable fight or reached for the unreachable star or is it only egotistical dreaming on our part?  We want to think that we were born on this earth for a reason.  Not one of us wants to think that we were an accident or that the only thing on our parents’ minds was recreational sex.

Existence is an osmotic process that links the needs of the outside world with our own inner needs, talents, and abilities.  Maturity comes when we stop simply looking outside of ourselves and start searching inside ourselves as well.  The good life is one that balances inside and outside focus.  This is the Yin and Yang of life.  When we find the alchemy that balances these perspectives, we find the true meaning and purpose of our lives.  But it is not etched in stone, and it may change several times before we leave this planet.  Life is always an evolving process.

I started this blog off by extolling the virtue of speaking out.  I believe that an injustice done to anyone is an injustice done to all of us.  Audre Lorde, an American writer, feminist, womanist, librarian, and civil rights activist said:

“I was going to die, sooner or later, whether or not I had even spoken myself.  My silences had not protected me.  Your silences will not protect you…. What are the words you do not yet have?”

For much of my life, I have tried to be outspoken against what I perceive as injustice.  I often wonder if I do not spout off too much.  One friend told me that “You fight too many battles.”  When I heard this, I thought of the comment by the Russian Anarchist Bakunin that he would stop being unreasonable when the world around him became reasonable.

merlin_2894829Two days ago, I heard a story that is worth being repeated.  The story brought tears to my eyes.  If you have already heard it, I hope you will not mind hearing it again.  I personally would like to hear it being told from every church pulpit, every congressional building, and every auditorium in America.  I would like to hear it being told every day until every person in America could empathize with what this young girl went through.  I would like to hear it being told until every person in this country would finally speak out and say “enough.”

“Death of bullied Utah girl draws anger over suicides, racism” by Brady McCombs, 12/2/2021.

Ten-year-old Isabella “Izzy” Tichenor was a happy little girl with a sunny disposition who loved life and dreamed of being a professional dancer.  Even though she had autism, life was good for Izzy until this school year when in a new grade she became the target of racism and bullying.  Isabella was the only Black student in the class.  Now if you are familiar with Maslow’s Hierarch of Needs, you will know that 618ff27e9c519.imagethe issues of Meaning and Purpose that I addressed above relate to a certain position in life.  Namely, those of us who are secure enough in our environment that we no longer have to worry about food, shelter, and safety.  This is a luxury that does not pertain to all people.  In particular it did not pertain to Izzy.  She was a girl who because of her skin color and health had to face every day with a battle.  A battle designed by others to destroy her peace and serenity.  A war waged to undermine her very being by belittling, insulting, and abusing her.  Izzy did not have the time to think about the meaning and purpose of her life because she was too busy trying to deal with the very bottom levels of Maslow’s Hierarchy.

Her mom was unaware of the bullying that Izzy was facing until one morning she found Izzy spraying Febreze air freshener on herself before school.  Brittany Tichenor-Cox had been wondering what was wrong with her daughter whose beaming smile had gone dormant after she started the fifth grade.  She coaxed out of Isabella that a boy in her class told her that she stank after their teacher instructed the class that they needed to shower. It was the latest in a series of bullying episodes that targeted Izzy, the only Black student in class.  Other incidents included harassment about her skin color, eyebrows and a beauty mark on her forehead, her mother said.

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On November 6th, 2021, Izzy’s mom came home to find that Izzy had hung herself.  Can you imagine finding one of your children hanging by a belt around their neck in a closet.  Their eyes wide open, their tongue bulging out and their face turned blue.  What would your reaction be?  Her mom blames the school system for doing nothing.  Despite repeated talks and calls to school administrators, the abuse had gone on for months.  Perhaps the school did not think that Black Lives Mattered.  But what about the life of a little girl with autism who wanted to grow up and be a ballet dancer?

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“An ongoing investigation by the Justice Department has uncovered hundreds of documented uses of the N-word and other racial epithets over the last five years in Izzy’s school district against children of color. The probe also found physical assaults, derogatory racial comments, and harsher discipline for students of color.”

Child Suicide Bullying

Brittany Tichenor- Cox, center, joined by her sister Jasmine Rhodes, right, speaks about her daughter Izzy Tichenor, as hundreds joined the Tichenor family in mourning the death of 10-year-old Isabella “Izzy” Tichenor during a vigil at Foxboro Hollow Park in North Salt Lake, Utah, on Tuesday, Nov. 9, 2021. Tichenor took her own life on Nov. 6th in connection to being repeatedly bullied at her Davis County school for being Black and autistic, according to her mother Brittany Tichenor. (Leah Hogsten/The Salt Lake Tribune via AP)

I am not alone in being appalled by the school’s reaction or lack of reaction to the abuse against Izzy and other minority children.  Thousands of people have reacted to this story with indignation and a demand that it be investigated.  The concern of so many people is a welcome development in light of the seeming apathy of too many people.  I still cannot believe that nearly 32 percent of possible American voters did not vote in the last election.  Elie Wiesel said that:

“Silence encourages the tormentor, never the tormented. Sometimes we must interfere. When human lives are endangered, when human dignity is in jeopardy, national borders and sensitivities become irrelevant. Wherever men or women are persecuted because of their race, religion, or political views, that place must—at that moment—become the center of the universe.”

What can you do to help overcome racism and indifference to the sufferings of others?  Can you write about it?  Can you join an organization to protest it?  Can you send money to a group that is fighting for the rights of others?  Can you stand up for people when you see that they are being insulted or abused?  Can you call the Utah Attorney General and express your outrage against this abuse that Izzy suffered?  Can you ask your church leader to say something today, tomorrow, and Sunday about the ongoing abuse that minorities suffer every day in this country?

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The more of us that take a stand for Izzy, the sooner this will really be the “Land of the Free and the Home of the Brave.”

Utah Attorney General – Protecting Utah. Protecting You.

Office Hours

Monday through Friday

8 am to 5 pm

Email:  uag@agutah.gov

General Office Number:

1-801-366-0260

The Great Divide:  An America Torn Asunder by Divisions

15 Sep 2021 9 Comments

by Dr. John Persico Jr. in Uncategorized Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

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I published the following blog a few months ago.  I think it needs to be more visible.  If you agree with the ideas in this blog, would you please share it with other people or groups that it might help.  Democracy is in crisis today in America as never before.  It has not ended with Trump being defeated since his followers and minions are still out doing their best to overturn Democracy in America.  Only an informed and literate citizenship can defeat these efforts.  

The number one subject for bestselling non-fiction books in the USA today concerns the chasm that separates Republicans from Democrats.  Rural voters from urban voters.  College Educated people from non-college educated.  Conservatives from liberals.  Fox viewers from CNN viewers.  Your facts from my facts.  Your truths from my truths.  Your lies from my lies.  Your views of reality from my views of reality. 

This divide is decried by all the pundits and experts.  Not one of the writers on this subject has anything good to say about the divide.  Perhaps they harken back to the old saying, “United we stand and divided we fall.”  Or the adage that, “A house divided cannot stand.”  Whatever the reasoning, no one thinks that a USA as divided as it is with nearly 75 million people voting for Donald Trump and 80 million people voting for Joseph Biden is helpful for our nation.  Keep in mind, it is not just the sheer numbers that alarm people, it is the magnitude of the crevasse that scares people.

hate-spesechThe abyss It is so big that there is no bridging it.  None of the sides can see the other side.  None of the sides has any common ground with the other side.  None of the sides understands the language that the other side speaks.  We might as well be earthlings talking to Martians.  There is no lingua franca.  Many of the “well-meaning” experts exhort both sides to try harder to bridge the gap or to work more diligently to listen to the other side.  It seems to be assumed that all it will take to jump the gulf is good intentions.  I cry bullshit on this.  As the old aphorism goes, “The road to hell is paved with good intentions.”  It will take more than good intentions to heal the wound that infests our country.

Before we can fix what ails America, we must clearly understand what brought this divide about.  What are the causes for this divide, and can they be healed?  I see three main causes for this chasm.  They are: 1. Greed, 2. Demonization, and 3. Media.  Let’s look at each of these three elements and see how they contribute to the divide and what if anything can be done about them. 

Greed:

Corporate greed and materialism have driven a wedge between the haves and the have nots in America.  A larger gap than ever before exists between the rich and the poor.  The number of people seeking free food and standing in line at food banks has only been higher during the Great Depression.  The requirements for a digital elite versus a computer illiterate fuels the growing income gap.  The Opioid Epidemic is only one symptom of this inequality in the USA.  Many people cannot afford medical care or adequate housing as well as food. 

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For years now, materialism has been touted as the backbone of American commerce by corporations and the media.  Inflammatory news events sell advertisements which drive people to the shopping malls, ball parks, restaurants, and performances.  Special events like “Black Friday” abound where people, “shop till they drop.”  There is a vicious spiral to these events since the final outcome is to keep people needy and wanting more.  The theologian Matthew Kelly says you can never satisfy wants only needs.  Pursuing wants will always leave you wanting more.  Eating, sleeping, exercise and love are needs that can be satisfied and will bring you happiness.  You can never be happy pursuing wants.

materialism and spendingThe wants advertised on the TV and in the media are never fulfilling.  We have a nation of brainwashed consumers who mistakenly think that more toys, bigger houses, more guns, and luxury cars will make them happy.  We are a nation on a never-ending treadmill of consumer materialism where like rats we keep spinning the wheel and hoping to find happiness, but happiness never comes, and drugs take its place. 

There is no sanity in our economic system.  It is a zero-sum game.  It is a great deal like the lottery.  Next week there will be 100 million losers, but one winner will get a billion dollars or more.  The value for the lottery keeps going up which entices more and more people to buy lottery tickets, but the number of losers also keeps going up.  Where do the profits for the lotteries go?  Not back to the people, regardless of what they tell you.  Our society is being sold hope where hope is the most elusive product in the marketplace. 

imagesAs the rich get richer and the poor get poorer, the tensions in society grow ever more divisive.  We see more road rage, more senseless shootings, more violence between men and women, less loyalty between employers and employees.  The underpinning of society that should be based on human integrity and morality is replaced with an opportunism based on an amoral value system.  Whatever we can get as long as we break no laws is considered to be moral.  We see most politicians that have no commitment to anything except to collect more money so that they can stay in office.   Their highest goal is to help the rich get richer, which of course includes themselves. 

Jesus said that money is not evil, it is the pursuit of money that is evil.  The evil in America comes from a frenzy for more that separates Americans from each other.  Like a horse race where there can only be one winner, there are only going to be a few rich Americans and many more poor people scrambling to be the “King of the Hill.” 

I do not believe that the divide in this country can be erased until we eliminate the gap between the rich and the poor.  It is not simply a matter of conversation or discussion.  It is a matter of inequality.  A poor person cannot talk to a rich person unless they can shout over gated walls and armed security guards.  The biggest divide in America is between the haves and the have nots.  It is between the will haves and the may never haves.  The haves in America expect to have more and probably will get more.  The have nots do not know where their next paycheck will come from or whether they will be able to buy food for tomorrow.  No amount of discussion or listening skills is going to solve this problem.  

Demonization:

Speech-Bubble-Montage_2-1 (1)I am not talking about the devil here or about spirituality.  I am talking about a kind of insidious propaganda that has been spread by many groups and individuals.  In this propaganda, one side of America is labeled as moral, ethical, righteous, and just.  The other side is the opposite.  The other side is everything negative.  The other side is a composite of all the demons and evils that Americans believe in.  The other side are communists, fascists, atheists, anti-democratic, anti-patriotic and un-American.  One side is good.  The other side is evil incarnate.  You cannot talk to evil.  You cannot discuss with the devil why he wants your soul.  You cannot debate with Satan over the values that he has.  Heaven and hell do not have weekly discussion groups.  The language heard today, and what the media publishes drips with hate, innuendo, and disdain.  The language fosters violence.  I doubt the Founding Fathers ever conceived that the First Amendment would protect such speech.  There are three elements that contribute to a hate speech culture that demonizes the other side: 

  1. Malicious Labeling:

freehatespeechMalicious labeling is the name calling that goes on between both sides today wherein each side is labeled.  You can hear it on almost every talk show program in America today.  Name calling and name labeling.  Commie pinko leftists!  Intellectual elites!  Radical socialists!  Racist rednecks!  Fascist dictators!  Politicians, commentators, newscasters, and radio talk show hosts all use malicious labels to insult and demean those they disagree with.  What have we let this country become when we allow such name calling?  This kind of hyperbole demonizes the other side and creates a divide that cannot be overcome by rational conversation.

“I think the political process has degenerated into name-calling and extremism, and I think that that’s unfortunate.” — Bill Bradley

  1. Anti-Government Diatribes:

extremismword_hp111319.1200x0I do not think that the Founding Fathers of our nation believed that Government was evil.  Certainly, they felt that there could be too much government intrusion on the rights of the populace.  They invoked certain safeguards to protect both human rights and states rights.  Nevertheless, they did not demonize government and not a single one of the Fathers ever referred to government as evil.  Edmund Burke, the famous English conservative said, “The government that governs best is the government that governs least.”  He never said, “government was evil.”  It has become common place to hear refrains denigrating the role and necessity of government.  This steady drumbeat of antigovernmental rhetoric has created a group of people that have no value for government and who support the idea that government should be abolished.

“A primary object should be the education of our youth in the science of government. In a republic, what species of knowledge can be equally important? And what duty more pressing than communicating it to those who are to be the future guardians of the liberties of the country?”  — George Washington

  1. Legal Advocates of Violence

loyal white knights and aryan nations in texas july 2016 from vkdotcom_0A few years ago I began to wonder why groups like the KKK, Aryan Brotherhood, Antifa, The Proud Boys and many other such groups advocating violence against the government were not labeled as Terrorist Organizations.  I asked a lawyer this question and he replied, “it is all politics.”  I found that almost all the groups listed by the Southern Poverty Law Center as “hate groups” were designated as “extremist groups.”  This means that they are not illegal, and they have the right to organize, march, rally and basically spread their hate across America.  In 2019, The SPLC listed 940 hate groups across the USA.  If any of these groups was labeled as a “Terrorist Group,” they would be on the same list as the Taliban, Boko Haram, The Mafia, Mexican Cartels and Al Qaeda.  What is the difference between an extremist group and a terrorist group?  It might surprise you to learn that a terrorist organization is defined as follows:

In the United States of America, terrorism is defined in Title 22 Chapter 38 U.S. Code § 2656f as “premeditated, politically motivated violence perpetrated against noncombatant targets by subnational groups or clandestine agents”.

In general, terrorism is classified as:

  • The use of violence or of the threat of violence in the pursuit of political, religious, ideological, or social objectives
  • Acts committed by non-state actors (or by undercover personnel serving on the behalf of their respective governments)
  • Acts reaching more than the immediate target victims and also directed at targets consisting of a larger spectrum of society.

15963If this definition does not apply to the groups that tried to storm the US Capital on January 6th, 2021, I do not know what does.  Just yesterday the Canadian government labeled the Proud Boys as a Terrorist Organization.  This delegitimizes the group and takes their rights away.  For Canada, it is a start.  I am wondering when we are going to get started in the USA on such an effort.  The First Amendment was never construed to allow hate speech and the advocating of violent actions to overthrow the government.  Why do we not have the political will to outlaw these groups?  We seem to have little compunction in penalizing Black groups like the Black Lives Matter Movement or the Black Panthers.  We have a different standard when it comes to White Supremacy groups. 

The Media:

000f25f2-6bf0-11e9-994e-1d1e521ccbf6_image_hires_015902The newspapers, TV and the Internet are today the major carriers for the hate and vituperation that has spread across America.  On one side of the divide, we find the NY Times, the Washington Post and CNN News.  On the other side, we find the NY Post, the Washington Examiner and Fox News.  There are countless other purveyors of extreme and fanatical views.  Each side reeks of headlines supporting nonobjective views and biased reporting.  If objective reporting ever existed in the USA, it has been murdered and buried by the most pervasive media to ever exist.  The media carries the hate and violence that is created by politicians, pundits, radio commentators and hate groups and ensures that it gets widely disseminated.  Without the media, much of the divide would never have occurred.  Hate needs a platform to be spread and the media is more than happy to host anything that it believes will sell itself and its advertising. 

Conclusions:

We are not going to overcome the divide that separates Americans today by platitudes and wishful thinking.  No amount of holding hands or singing kumbaya together is going to unite Americans.  We have a systemic rot in our system that is caused by the extremism in politics and media that has created this divide.  We need to enact reasonable laws to stamp out this rot while also protecting free speech but not hate speech.  There is a difference between hate speech and free speech.  If we cannot figure this difference out, we will never close the divide that exists in America today.  You can defend the First Amendment all you want, but there are limits to everything and that includes so-called Free Speech. 

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Then-CIA director Gina Haspel said the US was ‘on the way to a right-wing coup’ after Trump lost the election: book

 

Queer from a Straight Perspective

24 Apr 2021 4 Comments

by Dr. John Persico Jr. in Uncategorized Tags: , , , , , , , , , , ,

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I am a straight guy.  Over the years I, like many other people in the world, have had to grapple with a number of questions that challenge my view of the world.  They challenge my view of how things should be.  They challenge my view of what is right and what is wrong.  I want to first look at some of these questions.  Then I will give you my background with gay men and gay women over the years.  Encounters I have had with them.  Friends I have had who came out or did not come out.  Finally, I want to give you my opinion about what is the fundamental question that fuels all controversy concerning homosexuality.  That question is “Are homosexuals normal or abnormal?”  This is basically the question that upsets people who want normalcy in the world. 

Some Questions:

How would you feel if your only daughter wanted to marry another woman or your son wanted to marry another man?  Although same sex marriage was legalized in the USA in 2015, many states still have laws on the books making such marriages difficult.  To date, only 29 out of the 195 countries in the world have legalized same-sex marriage.

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How would you feel if your church had an openly gay minister or a lesbian priest?  In more than fifty percent of all churches in America, homosexuality is regarded as a sin.  Pope Francis said that the Catholic Church cannot bless same sex marriages, never mind ever ordaining a lesbian or even a woman priest.

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What if your granddaughter told you that she was changing her name from Ashley to Fred and was going to undergo gender transformation to become a man?  A record number of bills to limit transgender rights have been introduced this year in state legislators across the country, with lawmakers in 28 states considering 93 bills targeting the rights of transgender Americans according to the Human Rights Campaign.  Many state legislatures are weighing measures that would bar transgender youth from participating in sports or receiving medical treatment. 

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2020 was the deadliest year on record for transgender people in the US: 45 transgender people were killed, up from 26 in both 2018 and 2019. This year is already on pace to be even deadlier, with 15 killings in the first 109 days of 2021.

My Queer Experiences:

I was born to an Italian father and Irish mother in 1946.  My father was 6’4” tall.  He was a decorated WWII veteran and had fought professionally as a boxer.  He was as macho a man as ever lived.  He would have put John Wayne to shame.  I grew to the age of 14 with no knowledge of gays or queers or any words to even describe them.  They were not part of my universe.  I was a fighter like my dad and had no problem in bare knuckle fighting to resolve problematic issues.  Somewhere along the way, I grew to hate bullies.  Some of my earliest fights involved kicking the shit out of some bully who was attacking a friend or even a stranger.

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When I became old enough to hang out nights with a street corner gang, the issue of queers became more salient.  It would seem that several guys on the corner would get “blow jobs” from gay men.  Some other guys would go out on Friday nights down to the docks to roll some “queers” and take their money.  I had several invitations to pursue these endeavors.  I had no desire to get a “blow job” from a guy.  This smacked of homosexuality to me but the guys on the corner who participated never thought of themselves as queer.  I also had no desire to roll a queer or take their money.  No gay man had ever done anything to hurt me, and I did not have any inclination to hurt them.  I can’t say I spoke out against this practice, but I never joined in. 

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Years later when I was in the military, I was assigned to a new base.  Upon arriving at the base, I was befriended by another service man who offered to show me around and be a buddy.  I appreciated his offer and we started hanging around together.  Soon, a bunch of other soldiers approached me and warned me that Mike was queer, and I had better stay away from him.  I did not break off all contact with Mike, but I limited my time with him after this warning.  I did not want anyone to think that I was “queer.”  Mike shipped out a few months later and never made any passes at me.

In the later seventies, something called the “Men’s Movement” started to emerge.  A “Men’s Center” was started in Minneapolis and I became a member.  I ardently attended men’s support group meetings, seminars, conferences and read much of the literature being published by leaders of the movement.  In due time, a straight men’s support group was formed, a gay men’s support group was formed, and a mixed group was formed.  Curious about the gay perspective on this movement, I joined both the straight men’s group and the mixed men’s group.

gay90-1d61x8dAt one of our mixed support group meetings, a gay man from our group challenged the rest of us, mostly the straight men to go out to a gay bar.  A popular one was the Gay Nineties on Hennepin Avenue in Minneapolis.  We accepted the challenge and decided that after our next support group meeting, we would all (straight and gay men) go to the Gay Nineties for a drink. 

We arrived there and found a table together.  There were about nine or so of us sitting down at a large round table.  There was a bar and a dance floor.  Many same sex couples were dancing, both male and female couples.  There were also some mixed couples.  We had a few drinks and talked for a couple of hours.  During that time, I watched somewhat nervously as men at other tables were approached by other men and asked to dance.  I was hoping to avoid any kind of an encounter like that.  However, during my time there, no one came up and asked me to dance.  I began wondering if something was wrong with me since I did not have any invitations to turn down.  I thought my conflicting feelings were somewhat funny. 

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In 1981, I became a Manpower Counselor II with the WIN program in Wisconsin.  I had received my M.S. degree in Counseling, and I took a state test to apply for this position.  The WIN program was the Work Incentive program, and the aim of this program was to help get AFDC or Welfare people back to work.  The program was a Federally funded state effort.  It involved joint cooperation between the Department of Social Services (DSS) and the Department of Industry, Labor and Human Relations (DILHR).  DSS assigned a Social Worker, and I was assigned by DILHR to work together to form an employment plan for eligible AFDC applicants.  The social worker would provide social support and I would provide logistical support to help applicants find suitable employment.

I met Lisa Patefield, who was the social worker for the program, during my first month on the job.  Lisa was cool to me and did not seem very friendly.  She was an attractive and athletic young woman with an M.S. degree in Social Work.  Several weeks went by and she continued to seem very distant and almost hostile towards me.  One day just before a meeting with a client, I confronted Lisa.  I asked her if I had said or done anything to offend her.  She put her head down and started crying.  I asked her what was wrong, and she raised her head and said, “I am a lesbian and whenever anyone I have worked with finds out, I am soon ostracized and ridiculed.”  I replied that I had no problem working with her nor did I have any qualms with her love life.

Lisa and I became good friends.  We often went out for lunch and a few times she came over to my house to visit.  One day, Lisa asked if she could take my daughter, who was about 12 at the time, to a baseball game with her.  I must admit that my first thought was, “What if she turns my daughter into a lesbian?”  Then I thought, “How stupid.  You don’t turn anyone into anything.  People make their love choices for any number of reasons.”  Lisa was as good a role model for my daughter as anyone I ever knew.  Chris went to the ball game and until I left the WIN program Lisa and I remained good friends.  I have often wondered what happened to her. 

I grew up.  I got older.  I have had many gay friends over the years. 

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Are homosexuals normal or abnormal?: 

A 2020 FBI report shows that victims targeted for their sexual orientation – listed as gay, lesbian, or bisexual – comprise the third largest victim category at 16.7 percent, the report notes.  The FBI report says there were a total of 1,195 hate crime incidents targeting victims because of their sexual orientation.  Out of that figure, 746 are listed as anti-gay male, 115 as anti-lesbian, 17 listed as anti-heterosexual, and 26 listed as anti-bisexual.

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The Bible, the source for many people on what is right or wrong condemns homosexuality in no uncertain terms.  Christian and Jewish religions are quite fond of using the Bible to support their bias against gender choices.  These same religions conveniently overlook the Bibles condemnation of adultery, lying, prostitution, divorce, and pre-marital sex.  You would be hard pressed to find a single human being on earth who did not daily violate something written in the Bible.

When we look at the question of “normality” we need to first define our terms.  Normal means to reflect what is generally accepted by a majority of the population.  It is the usual, average, or typical state or condition.  Abnormal means to deviate from what is accepted by the majority.  It is the unusual or untypical.  When people do not follow the conventional social or moral rules of their society, their behavior is considered abnormal.  To be abnormal carries a negative bias or connotation. 

If you think about these definitions for a second, you will realize how ridiculous the terms and concepts are.  First, if everyone were normal, there would be no creative or innovative people.  Normal people would never do abnormal things and the world would be very boring.  Innovation is based on people doing things that have never been done before. 

Second, the idea of normalcy is based on averages.  The problem here is that an average throws everything into one pot and comes out with a mean to represent a group.  The average or mean height for a man may be 5’9” but there are plenty of people who do not fit that mean.  We have a world full of averages that ignores variation and looks at differences as deficits.

Finally, life and social mores continue to evolve.  Slavery was once “normal”, but slavery was and always will be evil.  Prejudice against religions, race, ethnic groups, and other nations is quite normal in our world but such prejudice is and always will be evil. 

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Prejudice against people because of their gender choices is evil.  If you want to be prejudiced against anyone or anything, you should be prejudiced against politicians that divide people instead of uniting people.  You should be prejudiced against religious leaders that preach intolerance instead of tolerance.  You should be prejudiced against people that attack or harm others because of lifestyle choices that do no harm to them.  The only harm gay people do is to disturb their petty ideas of what is right and wrong.

We live in a world of too little tolerance for others.  We have too little respect for differences.  We have a world full of myopic views of how life should be lived.  It is time we start embracing the magnificent array of choices that life brings to us.  We will only make a better world when we stop discriminating against people who are different from us.

“It is absolutely imperative that every human being’s freedom and human rights are respected, all over the world.”– Jóhanna Sigurðardóttir

The Seven Greatest Appreciations of Life: Peace

31 Mar 2021 2 Comments

by Dr. John Persico Jr. in Uncategorized Tags: , , , , , , , , , ,

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“Peace I leave with you; my peace I give unto you: not as the world giveth, give I unto you. Let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be fearful.” — John 14:27

Peace is perhaps the second most spoken word in the English language as well as the second most misunderstood. 

546ad58cbe260aa3bb2946b2a7c566acA Rabbi, Iman, Pastor and Buddhist Priest were all discussing the issue of peace in the world and in particular peace in the Mideast.  The Rabbi said there could only be peace in the Mideast if all the Muslims left.  The Iman said that there could only be peace if all the Jews left.  The Pastor jumped into the argument and said there would only be peace if all the non-Christians left.  The Buddhist cleared his throat to interrupt the argument and said, “There will never be peace anywhere as long as there are Muslims, Jews, Protestants, Catholics and even Buddhists in the world.” 

Peace is the nexus that links politicians and religious leaders.  Peace drips from the lips of religious leaders and politicians so often that I would be a billionaire if I had a quarter for each time one of them uttered the word peace.  There is a symbiotic relationship between religious leaders and politicians.  We have hundreds of years of racism, greed, sexism, discrimination, and militarism pursued by political leaders and blessed by religious leaders all over the world.  Politicians need religious leaders to sanction their immoral behaviors.  Religious leaders need politicians to foster behaviors that are not endorsed in their official religious teachings.

We have a world that needs peace.  Peace is to the soul as food is to the body.  Peace sustains us spiritually and mentally.  When we think of peace, we think of such phrases as “Peace in the valley.”  “A life of inner peace.”  “Go in peace.”  “Let there be peace between our people.”  “It was a peaceful day.”  “Peace begins with a smile.”  Racism, sexism, greed, discrimination, and militarism all destroy peace.

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Happiness and joy are two of the sought-after states in the world, but neither state can exist without a foundation of peace.  Jesus said, “Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called the children of God,”: Matthew 5:9.  You would think that those who say they are called to be Priests, Ministers and Pastors in the Christian religion would understand that Jesus expected them to be peacemakers.  Sadly, that seldom seems to be the case.  It is even sadder that the idea of peace is blasphemed by these same people whose vocation is to foster peace.  The concepts of spirituality and peace go hand in hand.  One cannot be a spiritual person and sanction the wanton and needless destruction of life.  Peace is meaningless if it is just a word.  If we really want peace it must be a way of life for all of us.  You cannot preach peace in the pulpit on Sunday and then support racism, sexism, discrimination, greed, and militarism the rest of the week.     

Mens-Peace-guins-Long-Sleeve-Crusher-Tee_70962_1_lgThe peaceful person does not use violence against others.  The peaceful person is a diplomat who solves problems with his/her brain and not with tools of aggression.  The peaceful person is confident because they have integrity.  The peaceful person has serenity because they have no fear.  Fear is the enemy of peace.  When the world is on red-alert, people live in fear.   People become fearful of others and fearful of living.  Racism, sexism, discrimination, greed, and militarism create fear.  With fear, no one can be at peace. 

We can only appreciate peace if we are carriers and messengers of peace.  The person who endorses violence, abuse or discrimination against others can never be at peace because they have no peace in their heart.  Such people live on violence and thrive on aggression.  They reap what they sow.  By sowing death and destruction, they ensure that they will never know peace. 

51qBtOmrIgL._SS500_We should all be grateful for peace.  This means we need to appreciate peace and understand that it cannot be taken for granted.  Peace is up to us to create.  It is too important to leave to religious leaders and politicians.  If we want peace in our lives and peace in the world, we must create it.  There can never be peace for anyone if there is not peace for everyone. 

Think about peace today.  Do you live in a land of peace?  When you get up or go to bed today, do you feel peaceful?  Are you at ease with life or are you anxious, nervous, and fearful?  Do you appreciate what or how peace in your life would feel?  What would it take for your life to be more peaceful?  Do you think the world deserves peace?  If peace is everyone’s responsibility, what will you do to sow peace today? 

Peace starts with living peacefully. 

Mark Twain wrote a short story called the War Prayer.  It has been made into a ten minute video.  It is very moving and something everyone should see.  The link is below:

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