The end is near. The end is here.
My dearest readers, I'm going South literally and literarily, and will miss the opportunity to share my ravings with you. I can only hope that the feeling is mutual.
Trying my hand at columnist and social commentator was not motivated by hubris or a sense that everyone is entitled to my insightful opinions. Rather, it was to stimulate thought, debate and introspection.
Rarely are things in life black-and-white, but I've always felt that simplifying issues to analyze and identify at least 51% of the matter is not only desirable but also necessary if we are to cope well in our emerging post-modern age.
As this is my parting column, I must leave with you a black-and-white issue, that is, about blacks and whites.
My heart is very heavy with our current state of race relations in our community and country. Mayor Marion Barry's latest remarks about not supporting fellow democratic DC city council candidates because of their color (white) exemplifies the worst of the human mind and mentality and dramatically illustrates how we, as a people, and especially Marion Barry as a former civil rights leader, have failed to learn from past lessons.
I am absolutely unsympathetic towards the pathetic arguments that say, "But whites are in command, part of the power structure, so blacks' attitudes can't be deemed racist or prejudicial and injurious to the reconciliation process." That's bunk and that's the nicest word I can use in print.
Such beliefs couldn't be more misguided, absurd, and damaging than believing that bleeding sick people with leeches improves their health or that the earth is flat.
Sick thought breeds sick people who produce sick societies. We should have gleaned from the 1960's civil rights movement. It's more than unfortunate that economic and social conditions haven't similarly caught up to that view yet. It's sad, but true, though a small consolation indeed to the disenfranchised, that cultural and societal change moves at a snail's pace even when the necessary remedy is eminently just and reasonable.
Failing to stick all our oars in the water merely keeps us going in useless circles.
And to such misguided people as Marion Barry who use hideous rationalizations about 'representation' of people, may we hope they just go away or enjoy a redemptive conversion as happened with the late arch-segregationist George Wallace.
To say, as Barry does, that a person's life and being and interest are tied primarily and inexorably to skin color perpetuates racial attitudes that we know must be eradicated. This is repugnant at best and pure racial bigotry at worst.
Such views are the rule. They're contagion. They're garbage. They must be resisted, reverse and righted. They can not be tolerated or accepted in any community that wishes to value individuals and groups as unique resources rather than color commodities always resigned to certain societal stations.
Marion Barry's creed, held by increasing numbers of people, represents that problem. He should know better. Shame on him! And shame of those who are afraid to speak out and right this wrong and remove this vile stench from public discourse.
Politics like these can never guide us to a solution. They can only divide, marshaling selective political power, and failing to usher in a better tomorrow.
How can so many people forgot Martin Luther King's ministry and message and fall prey to false prophets and political panderers. King said it clearly and simply. It's not the color of the skin but the content of the character.
Be well my dear friends -- and adversaries.
Although I'll be far away physically, I'm instantly at your service electronically. You may contact me at apelquist@netscape.com
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Fred W. Apelquist, III, M.Ed.
Approximately 630 words.
(c) 1998