Isms Afterthought

Although the period of my consciousness on this planet is still short, as of the date that this is written, I can think of no time in history when there was such oppression against this simple and essential question (with the exception of McCarthyism in the fifties).


Why?


I am absolutely astonished that so many people don't ask this simple question.

It is an essential question which needs to be asked (and not only tolerated, but encouraged) more often. Without this question, it would be impossible for Democracy to exist, and indeed when it is not asked, we see the democratic spirit upon which this country was founded wane.

It is interesting how the most radical (radical in this case meaning those who don't "go with the flow") are often socially "casted out". We call them "hippies", "tree huggers", "animal rights wackos", "liberals" and any number of other things. They are almost always looked down upon, laughed at and joked about and they are always a very small number compared to the majority. And yet they are the ones who seem to make the changes see.

While there are countless, here is one example:

During the early 1960s, a group of four African American freshmen sat down at the counter of a diner near their college in Greensboro. As was commonly accepted at that time (at least up to that point), they were not served. The movement gained speed as the weeks and months went by and the sit down protest spread around North Carolina and then over other states. Bravely facing the verbal and physical abuse which surely ensued, these brave people saw an injustice and decided to change it. By the time the civil rights act was passed (1964), many of the formerly segregated stores and diners became integrated.

These freshmen in North Carolina did not wait for the government to remedy the problem. They asked "why" and understood the injustice of the circumstance and changed it.


A similar example is the desegregation of the public transportation system.

Another is the small group of free thinking British citizens in a colony in the New World who were fed up with being under control of (what they believed to be) an oppressive regime thousands of miles away.

"Never doubt that a small, group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world. Indeed, it is the only thing that ever has."

- Margaret Mead