The Eve of Destruction?

In 1965, when I was a teenager, there was a song by PF Sloan, sung by Barry McGuire, going around that resonated with an entire generation of social justice advocates of all ages.

 

It was called The Eve of Destruction. Here are some of the lyrics:

 

Think of all the hate there is in Red China!
Then take a look around to Selma, Alabama!
Ah, you may leave here for four days in space,
But when you return it’s the same old place:
The poundin’ of the drums, the pride and disgrace,
You can bury your dead, but don’t leave a trace,
Hate your next door neighbor, but don’t forget to say grace…

“The Eve of Destruction” — LyricFind

 

And to think we thought we were in trouble then!

 

But Robert F. Kennedy and Martin Luther King Jr. were still around at that time. We had statesmen and civil rights advocates in high places doing their level best to change the trajectory of our sad history of racism and white supremacy.  And just a year before, President Lyndon B. Johnson had signed the Civil Rights Act into law.

 

Yeah, the ugly came out then, too as white supremacists in all parts of the South and across the nation dragged their heels and bellyached about what this country was coming to when  ‘N” were deemed just as good as white men.

 

I remember it all too well. I heard many of the adults in my life (all white) talking like this (luckily, no one in my nuclear family did, but I had uncles who did) and it deeply upset me. I always thought, “What a loser you are!”

 

But there were people in leadership positions back then who realized white supremacy was a myth, and one that needed to be extinguished with all deliberate speed. RFK said he expected to see a black man as President within 40 years. (He didn’t live long enough to see it happen, but he was just a couple years shy of being right.)

 

There was always the hope, back then, of a better tomorrow. Hope that the better angels of our nature would overcome our basest tribal instincts.

 

Tomorrow always looked better than today back then. We were going places. We were going to the Promised Land where all men (and even women!) were created equal and there was equal justice under the law.

 

I was so ABOARD that bandwagon. I didn’t see any way we could possibly lose!  People were waking up, being educated, rubbing shoulders with people of all colors, getting to know each other, caring about each other…

 

That’s what was happening in my world, at least.

 

But now look where we are!  We seem to be in an episode of The Twilight Zone, put right back in the same place as we were in the 50’s and 60’s, but this time we have totally unashamed racist, sexist, misogynistic white supremacists running things in Washington, D.C.

 

The POTUS (POS for short–and frankly, more apt) is threatening to turn armed forces loose on American citizens who are protesting the cold-blooded murder of a black man by four Minneapolis policemen, a killing caught for desperation-driven long minutes on video by a bystander who pleaded for mercy as she and others watched the life being snuffed out before her.

 

That makes zero sense! People have a right be outraged!  People should be outraged!  Everyone should be outraged by the act caught on camera not in just this instance but in too many others to even be able to list them all!  A jogger mowed down… a bird watcher threatened by a woman with a dog…  hoodie-clad teenager Trayvon Martin with Skittles in his hand… the boy with a toy gun in the park… Sandra Bland… Rodney King… Freddie Gray… God, the list just goes on and on and on!

 

Trevor Noah has a take on the matter that’s well worth the 18-minute listen:

 

https://www.upworthy.com/trevor-noah-connects-the-dots-on-upheaval-in-america?

 

He’s 100% right. Civilization requires that all citizens abide by the same social contract. But when systemic racism gives a leg up and a pass to white people that it denies to black and brown people, black and brown people and the white people who “get it” are obligated to call it out and seek equity.

 

And that’s what most of the peaceful protesters are doing.

 

Some white supremacists posing as Antifa (anti-fascists) are throwing monkey wrenches into the protests and muddying the water, hoping for a full-out race war, with Trump and his minions at the helm (considering this their best shot in decades to succeed) but, for the most part, the people in the streets are there to protest the actions of killer cops, white supremacists and fascists.

 

There’s no getting around that message.

 

People of good will are saying ENOUGH IS ENOUGH. Black lives matter. Brown lives matter. Native Americans matter. Every American matters. (Hell, every life on earth matters!)

 

This has become a nation of and for everyone who wants to be free while sacrificing for its continued existence, not a continent for rich white people only.

 

It was built by immigrants, built by black and brown and red and yellow people who were often under the lash of white people.

 

We may have started out as a nation for rich white land-holding men only, but the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution have altered that game plan to include all who work, live, strive, sacrifice, and die here.

 

Anyone who doesn’t understand that isn’t a 21st century American. And until the last racist, sexist misogynistic individual dies, they’re just going to have to adapt as best they can to the perspective of 21st Century Americans, because we’re not going anywhere… and we’re not going to let them run roughshod over our fellow Americans, red or yellow, black or white.

 

So, are we on the Eve of Destruction?

 

Naw.

 

Based on what and who I’m seeing in the streets, I’d say we’re just mad as hell at the injustice we see and we’re not going to just stand idly by and take it anymore.

 

We will have an evolution or a revolution.

 

Whatever it takes to reach the goal of an America that deserves and serves all of its citizens.