Well, well, well, if there aren’t some things going on in this day and age, sheesh. But all this and all that and everything else still boils down to people. It doesn’t matter what size, shape, color, sex, rich or poor, people are still people. Many years ago, I wrote a letter to the Editor of my capital cities paper. Yes, it was published. I wrote this letter when I was 21 years old, I’m now 56, and I carry it in my wallet. Is the letter still relevant today? Absolutely. The letter was basically about people treating people differently because of their skin color. There were a lot of things happening in the late 80’s. It seems like it was a different time, more carefree, simpler, but yet the black and white and rainbow colors of people have sadly remained the same. I had hoped back then and stated, that by the time I reached the age of 30 that people would come to understand color better. Well, here I am in my 50’s and in 2024 we appear to be making a backslide into muddy water and things are not for the better.
I grew up learning about history, history of WW 2 and Vietnam, Woodstock, Martin Luther King, the list goes on and on. I learned why our ancestors came to this new land. I learned that the land was up for grabs to the people of a new nation, but I also learned that this came at a terrible price. Native Americans who shared this land for 1000’s of years before any foreigner was here were killed off, moved to reservations and held to a less than human standard. They were savages to the new people. But in the name of freedom atrocities were done. Also, there was an enslavement of peoples from Africa going on. Millions of human beings displaced from their country, their homes, their families, their lives, again, all in the name of freedom. Whole groups of ethnicities being used for slave labor on railroads, mines, back-breaking work just to survive while the rich got richer. What makes one free and another slave? The color of their skin? The proper education? Money? Well, what it really has to do with is power. Who has the power and who wields it over another? It could be because of just one of those things or because of all of them, but one thing I know for sure is, we are the only species on this planet to dictate the pallet of worth of color onto the world’s canvas. Look throughout history, it’s all so plain and bold to see. If your different, if your less than, if you don’t fit into the majority, if you can’t wield your own power against those who are in power, than your color, your life, isn’t seen equal to those who choose to only see one class or color of people.
Our true colors are a natural part of this world. We range from a pale pigmentation to a black pigmentation. But we are still all just one people. Same hearts, same blood, same brains. Why we don’t use our hearts and brains in a more civilized, loving manner is actually appalling to me. Instead, many use their brains to distort color, to bastardize it, to condemn and control it. The rainbow is not to be controlled, it is to be admired and cherished. The true colors of ourselves manifest in two ways, our outward appearance, which is nature itself, and our inward actions, which is taught and learned. I see many people of the color spectrum who choose to live in the absence of color and that grieves my soul. One’s natural true color is who they are. One’s created color is always a choice. How do you choose to see the world? You can choose to be part of the rainbow, or you can choose to be part of the storm. What is your true color?
To See Or Not To See 