We often view the use of the word, creed, in a religious context, and rightfully so; but at its essence, a creed is a belief that is fundamental, a guiding principle. This Podcast is dedicated to the principle of freedom and liberty. The antithesis of freedom and liberty is oppression. The right to be free is a fundamental belief in American culture, and must never be taken for granted or abused. Therefore, the creed of freedom is more important than any other principle or belief...indeed, perhaps the most important.
Respect is a key ingredient to accepting and understanding events in our history. If we respect other people, simply for the fact that we have not walked in their shoes, we will have a greater appreciation for all that their forebears experienced. And perhaps more importantly, ensure that evils from the past are not repeated in our day.
SPEAKER_00
Hello again, ladies and gentlemen, and welcome to another episode of Freedom's Creed. Today is March second, twenty twenty-two. And I hope so far you're having a wonderful week. I'm doing pretty well myself and looking forward to talking about this topic that I have for today. And I suppose it could be considered taboo by some people, but I vowed early on in the podcast that I would not shy away from any topic, no matter what. And so this is what you're going to get today. Recently I listened to a podcast, and the hosts and the guest talked about the plight of blacks specifically from a religious standpoint. Now, the two hosts were white, the guest was black. I provide this information for context only so that you can perhaps get a sense of what I'm about to talk about in the podcast today. So let's get started. One of the hosts touched on something that I want to discuss. Actually, a couple things. And this will be the foundation, I suppose, for the rest of the podcast today. In attempting to formulate a question, this person said, quote, holding ideas that are oppressive and also to validate racist ideas. Now, I think that what this person probably meant by ideas or idea is opinions or a certain type of opinion. That makes more sense to me. In other words, it's not merely an idea that we consciously think because how do we have an idea that is oppressive or a racist idea? I suppose you can have those ideas, but the important thing is what you do with those ideas. Action is the key ingredient that is needed to move an idea to reality or to action. Certainly discrimination, racism, and every other oppressive action has grown or grows from an idea or thought. What was interesting to me was listening to these three people talk about slavery in America almost as though it still exists. The things that the the two hosts said the wow or oh, it was almost as if neither one of them really knew anything about history, the history of slavery, the history of oppression in the black community. It was almost embarrassing for me to hear this, and I just thought, could you be any more ignorant of something that you should know at least a little bit about anyway? In any case, the guest brought up the idea that a black person today may walk into a building that bears the name of a proponent of slavery or someone who actually owned slaves, or walks past a statue bearing the name of the same, that that person is re-traumatized. I thought to myself, re-traumatized? Doesn't that imply that they were traumatized or had to be traumatized in the first instance? That's what I thought. I mean, in order to be re-traumatized, maybe that's not the word he wanted to use, I'll give him that. But words do mean things, and I understand. I'm kind of a wordsmith. I get really annoyed when I myself use words out of context or don't use the right word for a particular context. So I understand that. I get it. I get that sometimes in the heat of the moment people say things that they wished they hadn't said or they didn't say something that they wished they would have said. So I'll I'll give that individual the benefit of the doubt in this particular case. But all of this sort of brings up the point that what happened in history long ago somehow impacts people today in an oppressive manner? Does it really? I mean, do you have to be black with an enslaved ancestry to be familiar with and acquainted with the evil of slavery? I don't think so. Listen, I am a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. If you are unfamiliar with the persecution suffered by the members of my church in the eighteen thirties and eighteen forties specifically, just know that the governor of Missouri named Lilburn Boggs signed an extermination order that made it okay to kill members of my church. But that doesn't mean that whenever I visit Missouri, that I'm somehow re-traumatized because a governor signed an extermination order nearly 200 years ago. That doesn't mean I don't feel bad for those people. I do. I think it was despicable the things that they suffered. But I personally never experienced that kind of trauma or oppression in the first instance. But it doesn't make me less empathetic because I didn't. It just means that I have to deal with things like that, as everybody does, and you deal with it in the best way that you know how. And one of the ways to deal with it is to simply move on with your life, to simply say, I'm not going to forget what happened in the history of my church, nor am I going to forget the history that happened to people who were enslaved in this country. But to say that someone is re-traumatized after not having been traumatized in the first instance really makes no sense to me. In 2015, Thomas Sowell wrote an article called The Scapegoat for Strife in the Black Community. Interesting, very short article, I'd recommend reading it if I were you. In that article, he makes this statement. Even the leading moral and religious thinkers in different societies accepted slavery as just a fact of life. So naturally, based on that quote, why is it that in the twenty first century we tend to only talk about slavery and its impact upon blacks? Is that right? Is it equitable? I don't know the answer to these questions. Perhaps it has something to do with time. It's easier for us to talk about slavery that happened two hundred years ago as opposed to happening thousands of years ago, I suppose. But does time really have anything to do with the equation? That's a question I would ask. Look, slavery was an evil, no matter what time in history it was practiced or occurred, nor what culture it was perpetrated against. This is why it is so important to understand history, to learn history, to learn about what happened to various peoples, not just slaves or blacks or any other race that was enslaved. It's important that we understand history, especially the worst parts of our history, so that what so that we don't repeat them again. We have people in the media today and in academia who seem to live off of racism, who conduct themselves in a way that racism and discrimination and slavery must continue to be talked about today because it's oppressing black people. Well, that's just a lie. Those saints aren't uh oppressing black people. The history of the United States today in the 21st century is one of the most free and then one of the most liberal places to live. You can have any thought you want. Well, okay, you've heard my podcast before. I think that the government is clamping down on certain people's thoughts. But suffice it to say, this is a place where you can live to be free and live to do whatever you choose to do, no matter what that is, no matter what you look like. And as Obama always used to say, no matter who you love, none of that matters. What matters is that the culture of freedom and liberty must be preserved. That means preserving, protecting, and defending the Constitution of the United States. Talking about history in a way that is dishonest or disingenuous, or even coming from a place of ignorance, is not helpful when it comes to progress. But again, you have people in the university who are teaching this idea of CRT or critical race theory. That does nothing to help people progress. In fact, it's regressive. It teaches people who are ignorant of history that, hey, you know what? Today is the day we have to take it out on another race because of what happened to our ancestors long before we were born. This is destructive and it should not be allowed to go forward in any college or in any school, no matter what the grade, if it's an institution of higher learning or if it's kindergarten. I don't care. It shouldn't be taught to our children and to young people. Here's what I believe regarding this topic of slavery and the whole communication or relationship between blacks and whites. We should be able to talk about the history of slavery, of course, but it must be done honestly, without reservation or concern, that somehow because I'm white, for instance, a black person is going to automatically condemn what I have to say on the topic of slavery, or switch it around. If a black person expresses some viewpoint on slavery that concerns them, a person who is white should not automatically condemn that person. In other words, let's have a grown-up conversation about it, and let's talk about it in a helpful and a constructive way. It doesn't do anybody any good to talk about it dishonestly or disingenuously or in any other manner that is only devised, I believe, in some cases, to profit the individual who is trying to stir it up, if you know what I mean. Here's what I know for sure. I love to learn new things. I love to learn things from other people, from other cultures, from people who don't look like me. And I love to do it because I love the perspective that I get from someone who's walked a different path than I have. I don't claim to know everything about everything. Who does? No one. But the way we can move forward is to respect and appreciate each other for who we are. We're all the same on the inside. Doesn't matter what the outside looks like. But saying that doesn't mean that I don't acknowledge that there are differences in skin tone. I know that people are darker than me, and that as amazing as it may sound, that there are people who are lighter complexed than me. Strange, I know. And if you know me, you know what I'm talking about. I want to end this episode today with a quote from a man by the name of Dietrich Bonhoeffer. He was born in Germany in 1906, the son of a famous German psychiatrist. He studied in Berlin and New York City. He left the safety of America to return to Germany and continue his public repudiation of the Nazis, which led to his arrest in 1943. He was hanged in April 1945 after he was linked to the group of conspirators whose attempted assassination of Hitler failed. When Bonhoeffer was taken by the Nazis and put into a concentration camp, he wrote a series of letters and papers that fortunately made their way out of the camp and have been published for all the world to see. There were letters that he had written to his parents, to friends, to a niece, and they were heartfelt, and it was interesting to me that he probably knew that he was never going to get out of that situation, and that is where he was going to die. And eventually that is exactly what happened to him, unfortunately. Writing to a friend, Bonhoeffer said this There is a wholeness about the fully grown man which enables him to face an existing situation squarely. He may have his longings, but he keeps them out of sight and somehow masters them. And the more he has to overcome in order to live fully in the present, the more he will have the respect and confidence of his fellows, especially the younger ones, who are still on the road that he has already traveled. End of quote. So, if you can think it, you can plan it. If you can plan it, you can do it.
