In just the last two weeks I have read opinion pieces in The Signal that speak of the duplicity and hypocrisy of both the left and the right as well as the elusiveness, and perhaps the impossibility, of real justice.
I have read of how political leaders and the media from each side take advantage of our vulnerabilities and provide us with the tools and the weapons to keep us divided and hostile toward each other.
From a higher level one can see that everyone is at fault and that no one has the common, greater good in mind. But stepping back a bit from the dramatic speeches, rallies and bonfires, we must ask ourselves this one simple question: What is it that makes us all so vulnerable to getting caught up and swept away by it all? Why is the situation such as it is?
I say it is for the same reason that people die of COVID-19 — it is because we have pre-existing conditions.
Isn’t it ironic that on the one hand we are proud of our racial diversity as a nation and how it supposedly makes us better and stronger, while on the other hand we use that diversity to pit ourselves against each other? Yes, diversity can be a strength, but it can also be an Achilles heel. Diversity is that pre-existing condition that if not managed wisely can ultimately mean our death knell. Although we have come a long way from our violent beginnings four centuries ago by enacting laws that are intended to protect people from each other as well as from our own government, those by themselves cannot heal the horrific wounds that were inflicted for generations on our darker-skinned ancestors by our lighter-skinned ancestors, and sometimes with celebration.
I do not know how to heal such wounds, but they are still there and ready to sting with every grain of salt that is placed into them. Talk of unity and justice is pointless until those wounds are somehow healed once and for all.
Arthur Saginian
Santa Clarita
