Forget About It, It Was Long Time Ago

"Lighten up people" is what a coffee shop owner said to people who are upset with his use of Nazi meme. He used the meme to compare the COVID-19 restrictions on social distancing. The owner was upset people were defying the social distance practice and call. His post had a picture of Hitler with the caption: "To those turning in your neighbours and businesses, you did the Reich thing." People were upset on how the Nazi regime is now used to compared in today's environment. The coffee shop owner felt everyone was over reacting so he said to "lighten up." I am sure the Jewish population said "Okay, we will lighten up." Actually everyone should be offended by his glib attitude to a horror.  He does not understand the negative response by the public over his Facebook post.

If an event has no bearing or effect on us, we tend to down play it, even ignore it. We may never have experienced the horror, the terror of Nazi Germany, Ethnic Cleansing, Rwanda Genocide, Slavery, Displacement, North American Native Genocide and persecution and so we can be forgiven if it's not in our minds. The problem is not with our ignorance of the events, but of our attitude towards those who have experienced the events. If I am not aware of some horror I should at least defer to those who know. We are willing to do that. We are quick to say "long time ago, forget about it." The responses may vary but the message is the same, "it means nothing to me." Now this is a sad way to live. Where is the empathy, the understanding? How would we feel if something terrible happened to us and the public didn't care?

White Supremacist John Wayne

There are a lot of things I have no clue about but the least I can do is not dismiss the feelings of others. I can't imagine the horror of my Grandparents being thrown in masses ovens. I can't imagine the terror of being chained inside of a boat and taken to a different world only to be tortured into submission. To be chained to an anchor weight and heft off the boat in the ocean. I have not experienced those horrors. Still I won't diminish the anguish over those events felt by some just because I don't care. We should care. The "forget about it" dismissal over a tragic event is selfish, no other way to describe it.

In Canada and the United States the Indigenous people went through ugly times. The general public doesn't care. They are only aware of the John Wayne portrayal of the Indian Wars, the Hollywood experience. The heroic cowboy dishing out all sorts of Western Justice on those raping-white-women savages. But hey, it was long time ago so lighten up. It's not like John Wayne killed any real Indians, did he? It's true John Wayne was never a cowboy hero, he was just an actor. So there would be no reason to name an airport complete with bigger than life bronze statue of him in the airport, would there? It's not like John Wayne said anything bad or racist. And even if he did, forget about it and lighten up, he's dead and gone anyway. "I believe in white supremacy" "I don't feel guilty about the fact 5 or 10 generations ago these people were Slaves."  Forget about it people, it's not like in the statue he is standing on an Indian or hanging a Slave.  Side story I told a cousin of mine that I went to L.A. and there is a John Wayne airport. "There is a big bronze of the Duke complete with him in a cowboy hat, six gun in his hand and his cowboy on the head of a dead Indian laying on the ground." My cousin, "Really?"  I says "Yeah, he is a big hero in the U.S. for killing all those Indians." My cousin, "Holy, that guy was mean wasn't he?" (Imagine Thomas Builds-a-Fire voice)

I think John Wayne and a huge portion of the white population in North America have this way of thinking: "It was long time ago, forget about it." In reality many things have not been long ago and actually are happening right now. Black People, Native People, Women, Gay People are being hurt, are being harassed and are being killed.  The examples are too numerous to list. So no, we should not be forgetting anything. We should be not lowering our voices about the atrocities which are taking place. We should be shouting, marching, writing letters, boycotting, and burning things. Kindness, generosity, patience, reasoning is not working. The ugly, specifically the racist public is deaf to the soft voice, the reasonable and the conciliatory approach. They, the ugly ones shut out every voice which is not in agreement with their own way of seeing things. The ugly times are here. We must do what we can to ensure it stops. One of the ways is to make sure it is not denied, the ugly is in fact now, not long time ago and no we can't forget.