Equality Now

Altar items used to cleanse a space of negativity.

I learned this week that it is illegal in Germany to do the Nazi salute in public and to wear or hang any symbols of the Nazi party, especially the swastika.

Yes, I know that the swastika was an ancient Indian symbol for centuries before the Facists claimed it for their own designs. Someone challenged me this weekend, with whether we could let the workings of one group alter the discourse of the original meaning.

My response was that yes, the blood of six million Jews is enough to taint the image forever. Or at least for now. Until none are alive who remember what their ancestors lost to the Nazis.

Which was the moment I realized that we have been remiss in allowing people to wave and hang Nazi flags or shirts or stickers. We have. Because Nationalists, as a rule, are racist. There is no more room to allow free speech to groups who fundamentally believe their superiority over everyone else. We have a responsibility to tell them they are wrong, that divisiveness will not be tolerated in our country.

We are at the point where we have to say it. Because Nationalists don't want equality, and equality should be our human, compassionate end goal. Or what are we existing for?

Everyone fights change. Our country has always fought it. But our nation is changing. As our young people fall in love, ignoring labels and boxes, we are organically becoming a different people, a different race. Why is that a bad thing? It's been happening in the open for the last five decades. It's time we say that being racist is wrong.

I know a lot of white people the generation above me who wouldn't say they were racist but didn't want their children having a relationship with someone of color. I had friends who cried over it and I was witness to some of those family fights. But as soon as there were grandchildren, most of that fear-of-the-unknown-racism melted away. Love filled the space that fear had held.

Love is the greater and more natural emotion.

I stand on the backs of my ancestors. The way we are living right now would likely be offensive to most of them. But as the generations passed, my family did not hang onto cultural values of those who came before us. They adapted.

I have no problem saying that people who believe in an ideology that promotes racism are wrong and have no place in this evolving country. They have to adapt.

I mean that across the board, not just as applied to Nationalists. But they're the ones who are in the news today.