It may get smaller in the rearview mirror...

A wise friend told me recently that things get smaller in the rear view mirror... that is true... and I like that thought... Today however, I thought of it in a different way... while some things may get smaller in our rearview mirror... those things are still very much present and are standing right in front of other people's cars...

I am on facebook... I use it daily... to communicate with people, to share with people in a way I don't share here... more of my day to day stuff... it is a good way to stay in touch with people and see what people are doing.  It is a nice way to stay connected with people... Some of the people I have chosen to be facebook friends with are FRIENDS, true FRIENDS... other on there are not FRIENDS... they are people who knew me in some capacity or know me in some form or another... including people with whom I went to high school or some who went to the same high school I went to before or after I was there. 

Today one of the girls I played basketball with in high school posted a picture of a small dog being hung by two young men who, in the picture, are flipping off the camera.  She posted the picture as a way to put their faces out there in hopes that they woulc be caught for their abuse of the dog.  A few people commented that they hope they get caught, that kind of thing.  Then.. one of my high school classmates commented... When I saw the picture I was disgusted by the obvious abuse and of the obvious disregard portrayed by the two young men.  It was disturbing.  My classmate chose to make the following comment, "Looks like we need to deport them as well!"

My heart sank. 

Seriously? When he looked at that picture, at the inhumanity... he saw race first.  He saw two people whose skin is darker than his own... and THAT's what he saw?   Then, another member of my high school alumni who is now a teacher at the school where I went to middle school, commented, "I agree, [NAME]...I bet thier parents are proud." 

I am disgusted.  And of course, being me, had to comment... and said, "Seriously? Are we at a place where you look at this image and the first thing you see is the ethnicity of the people in the picture and then jump to conclusions about their right to be here? That is sad to me... very sad."

The school teacher responded with, "Deport them regardless of their ethnicity...we dont want people that would do something like that in this country...."

Had the picture been of two caucasian young men, deportation would NOT have been discussed in the comments. 

Racism is alive and well.  And I hate that.  How does someone look at a picture like that and think of anything but the abuse of the dog? And how does someone think that it is anywhere near okay to mention deportation because someone is not caucasian? The two men that I have described here, the two who commented are caucasian, have lived most of their lives in rural Maine... neither of them are Native American.  (Not that being Native American would make it okay to say anything similar.)  I say that because they forget that their families, somewhere along the line, came to America.... which means THEY came from somewhere else...

Ahhhhh this gets me all fired up.  And the fact that one of them is a teacher!!!!!!!!!!  What is it that he teaches the kids? Kids learn so much by example, by our attitudes, by how we react to things... it makes me soo mad! 

*Added later:
The conversation on FB continued...I was pretty aggressive... and eventually the guy admitted he judged them based on their race... then when I asked him... said he would not have reacted the same had the people in the picture been white... and also said he probably wouldn't have reacted the same if they were black or Asian either...

So... did we learn nothing from our past? From our history and injustices toward any person facing opression? Is this the new civil rights movement? maybe not new... but clearly... we need more work...

picture source, by the way, http://cultureassignment.wikispaces.com/file/view/hands-on-globe-diversity.jpg/114402981/hands-on-globe-diversity.jpg