Saturday, June 20, 2020

Parsing The Phrase

Occasionally, phrases come into the American political lexicon.  Some make sense, some bale me, and recently, the phrase "black lives matter" has entered the political arena. I admit I was rather baffled by this statement, thinking that it was self-evident, so startlingly apparent that it didn't need to be verbalized.  I was raised to believe that every human life is precious, so of course black lives matter.

Revently, the phrase has become  a political bell-weather.  If you don't verbalize it, you are immediately branded as a bigot, or worse.  This week, our Vice President, Mike Pence was cornered by  a reporter who asked why he wouldn't recite the platitude.
“Forgive me for pressing you on this, sir,” anchor Brian Taff said to Pence, “but I will note you did not say those words, ‘Black lives matter,’ and there is an important distinction. People are saying, of course all lives matter, but to say the words is an acknowledgment that Black lives also matter at a time in this country when it appears that there’s a segment of our society that doesn’t agree. So why will you not say those words?”
“Well, I don’t accept the fact, Brian, that there’s a segment of American society that disagrees, in the preciousness and importance of every human life,” Pence said. “And it’s one of the reasons why as we advance important reforms in law enforcement, as we look for ways to strengthen and improve our public safety in our cities, that we’re not going to stop there.”
I recall when I was a soldier, and aa police officer, and I had black friends, associates, and brothers-in-arms.  Some were black, some were white, some where Latino, some were indistinct.  Their lives mattered to me, very much.  The idea that a soldier's life mattered more or less depending on his race was abhorrent.

The phrase has become a "woke" mantra, and I'm not really good at mantras.  When the BLM crowd starts actually believing the words, adn acting on them, decreasing the crime and corruption in places like Chicago, and worrying about the huge number of innocent black lives that Planned Parenthood suffs out every year, then perhaps I'll start believing that they mean what they say.

Until then tey sould not ask me to mouth meaningless words just to placate the mob.

3 comments:

kamas716 said...

Black Lives Matter. So do everyone's lives. Black lives matter no more, and no less, then everyone else's. This reminds me of the "lenient policy" embarked upon by the Chinese while holding POWs in Korea. Start small, something innocuous. Then slowly build up, little by little, until the gaslighting is complete and you have people saying, believing, and doing abhorrent things.

Sabre22 said...

Having worn the green, BDUs for the Army and about 4 different uniforms for the Sheriffs Office. Skin color does NOT matter to me. Whats matters is ability to do the job especially when things go wrong.

dogsledder said...

No. Black lives DO NOT MATTER. If they did, BLACKS WOULD NOT KILL EACH OTHER as often as they do. Check out Chicago, Baltimore, St. Louis, Detroit, and most other democrat-run cities with large black populations. Blacks should be teaching other blacks that "black lives matter'. Blacks killing blacks is their BIGGEST PROBLEM followed by drugs. Until they clean up their own acts, don't be lecturing ME.