Democracy was built from the many sacrifices given as a gift by one generation to the next spanning all the way back to the moment the first pilgrims cautiously stepped off of the boat into a new land with half starved outstretched hands. They were driven by their desire to practice their religion freely without persecution and sailed to the furthest corner of earth (1620)! Freedom of religion was so important to our national founding that we built one of the world's largest free nations from shared understandings of the rights endowed to all man (mankind).
Let us fast forward a four hundred years to modern times (2022) where we are now very far removed from the initial struggles of surviving in the wilderness with nothing more than hope for a brighter future (Maybe we could have added a hatchet as a necessary tool back then.). While it seems so long ago the problems of the past are fused into our national heartbeat as they were codified in the Constitution as central to our moral conscious and cultural assumptions.
In today's world, we have much more complex social structures but are still plagued by the same simple forces our founders faced as it relates to freedom and suppression. Americans are those that believe in that freedom, take oaths to protect it and act to uphold those essential freedoms against all odds (This American definition is something we should remember. Who is an American by a deeper value system and those who claim "American" simply by superficial attributes and false/partial symbolism.).
Our nation is based on our deep fundamental human urges rooted into our very biological existence and the symbolism we use to create value systems that draws us into indivisible collective people with liberty and justice for all. Our democracy is a projection of our inner biological urges to exist and strive on our own merits (i.e. life, liberty and pursuit of happiness). We built different institutions to help in administering these freedoms for the benefit of our nation and peoples. The very laws created were designed to protect those central values through official uses of power.
Thus law is an extension of collective shared values and in an ideal world they would be applied with that in mind. At least in theory! (Its philosophical in nature but most societies are human projections and most societies share similarities and thus root back to some basic human needs. Countries shift and change because of alignment or misalignment with those needs. Most of the time, it is a natural process from generation to generation as older ideas that solved older problems fade away and are replaced by new movements with new ideas from younger people focused on newer problems. Many of these problems are patterned and come back throughout a nation's life course and if it breaks a cycle the nation runs risks of collapse or becoming something else because that value system is no longer one of the central anchors of shared consciousness.)
It is important to remember that how freedom and democracy functions in our hometowns in realized application of our inner national values. Our observed behaviors on a local level give an indication to the sickness or health of our democracy. Lived experience and higher principle should be in alignment for maximum realized American spirit. If there is a disconnect between what we say during public facing political-academic discussions versus how Americans/"Americans" (depending on how you define American) experience freedom on a daily private basis we have value dissonance that must be brought into harmony (Its important to walk the talk on freedom and democracy).
A free pass for hate is not really free! It only highlights the differences between what we talk about on top of the organization but may not be optimally functioning on a local/granular level where it impacts real people (Theory and applied. Theory takes educational abstraction and applied takes hands on experience. This is also why I advocate for circulation of people to the highest social and financial in a capitalistic society to ensure proper ventilation of the top. The best and brightest should be able to rise to fulfill that role through pushing society to change. That won't happen if nepotism is the path that gets people opportunities ) The more different and "outsider" one appears to those doing the "judging" (i.e. throwing stones), the more the person appears as less worthy of rights (Some will believe in our principles and some just say what is socially expected of them. Have you watched politics? I suspect most are trying to do the right thing but not everyone is going to have high standards.).
What I'm saying here is a leading theory of explanation as to what appears to be the downing of three local institutions associated with exploitable of hate and bigotry. I suspect there is alternate theories from those who started the problem but it would be hard to rule out the wider motivations. Yet I would think that the aggression alone cannot be justified because someone was forced to install a boundary when kids were intentionally involved/harmed or one having the "wrong color" kids and certainly doesn't provide justification for lack of fair treatment and possible wink and nod to ethnic intimidation (I believe there is an important point to be made. Race, religion and personal gain doesn't justify serious aggression, intimidation or violence unless you have devalued the lives of the targets and find something exploitable such as race and religion to rally other. Keep in mind that many members of this group were very concerned about where my kids came from and have a history of treating others as "better than thou". They came to me and told me the reason why my family was being targeted were because we were Muslim {They know nothing about religion and don't even practice religion themselves}. They also did this with undercover officers standing near {First let me say that these officers are actually awesome officers but they were unaware the the manipulative depth others will go for gain. I understood what was happening in real time and am generally not inclined to quickly react.} It still makes me scratch my head. As experienced as I am in understanding hate I cannot say I have ever seen such quickness in moving a large amount of people from heuristic/quick judgement to acting on the behalf of hate. I spent time with Muslims, Jews, Blacks, and lots of others and I never seen such entitlement and lack of mental independence. I'm not sure one of them can say me and my kids ever did anything to them but someone commands them and they get aggressive. 🤷 Its Steven King creepy! )
Accountability doesn't necessarily mean jail time but there must be opportunities for improvement. While the goal of this group was in many ways to cause as much harm as possible they dipped into physical intimidation and corruption (Group aggression, calling names, picking fights, official guidance), lost economic opportunities (Discrimination by a local university who thought I was qualified for an adjunct job, not being able to receive certain local services, etc.), defamation of character (trying to damage and devalue the lives of the subject to encourage others to attack them), damaging/targeting/manipulating kids (Intentionally involving, targeting with undercover stops, and lying to kids), police targeting (parking outside of home, following home, illegal investigation), embezzlement/fraud (the financial incentives of launching hate) corruption (Free pass for hate groups) and public mocking.
None of that really matters if we don't really care about the integrity and health of our democracy and/or we made a decision that democracy is only for certain people (Their behaviors were shocking and hinted at some extremism among their members). Someone made a judgement call that these people over here have more rights to show aggression to minorities (We are all actual minorities and that will become more apparent. I'm using the term minority because people understand what it means.) than those people over there simply by superficial and what appears to be inherently biased criteria. Perhaps we feel that such democracies are for some and not for others. My suggestion since the beginning hasn't changed because it seems very reasonable to me, keeps people out of jail (They own it they go but I tried my best to derail them from their aggressive choices. Personally, I would like them to take the right steps and improve themselves and get the help they need) and corrects the wrong while putting future behaviors on notice.
It is important to keep in mind that a free pass can embolden such hate to rear its head because the messages are mixed (i.e. if you are this low value based on racial and religious reasons hate is given a free pass, protected, and swept under the carpet creating context for future cleansing.). Many of these behaviors seemed to have been learned during prior immunities and social bullying incidents (If you would have saw the coordination and smirks on their face you would have understood how "normalized" these behaviors have become.). Even if they no longer focus on these particular topics the learning lesson is that this group has the capacity to thwart that which is sacred in our country and can do so again if they desire because the local system is either frightened or unable to uphold the Constitution (Maybe there is a lot more I don't understand and I'm open to that possibility. What I do understand is is not worthy of a free pass and is grotesque and shameful in nature.). That is a longer term existential risk not only to the community but anyone not seen as a "local". I suspect the risks go up exponentially as superficial differences rises. It begins to look like a closed system skewed to the benefit internal members (Very very narrow definition of stakeholders. The one minority that could have done a lot of good for the community was intentionally rejected for qualified positions and ostracized for the bad behaviors of others. It is what it is! I believe some of those opportunities will continue forward but I would give a warning to local officials who feel that this group can't do any wrong and allow them to target any newcomers, minorities, investors, business owners, etc.. They showed they didn't need much of an excuse. No one can tell the future but open societies with lots of potential can be a draw with the right investment sparks. That comes through universalization and inclusion. ).
Here are a few ideas that I think would help, keep peoples records clear if possible, and make it difficult to repeat. It restores law and order around key national values. (Notice they are relatively unchanged since a few years ago when it started because the factors and roots of the problem haven't changed. The more we justify inappropriate behaviors with logical chains {Actually there is always a root misassumption in hate but its hard to show that to people unless you unpack all their ideas and false logic) that default back to the protection of certain groups, the more we water down our values)
1. Initial perpetrators have mental health screaming and follow up. Helps to ensure the hate doesn't have a deeper psychological problem and ensures they are no longer a risk to the community or targets.
2.) Investigate community complaints. Multiple community complaints against the same group members that have not been investigating. Some of which are serious and show patterns.
3.) Checks and balances to ensure close association and friendship with such groups doesn't deform local just through hate based rhetoric and misperception of American values.
4.) The college that is rejecting candidates based on social, racial, and religious concerns should have a review of their hiring practices, investigation the incident and put in place new policies. (Anyone need any emails to the HR department and President of the University making them aware of the incident let me know. If you have a legit reason I will share them. Its not about embarrassing people but fixing a broken system.)
5. Change the culture of the sporting community that has come to support and encourage aggression, bullying and hate. That may need to start in the elementary levels and ensure these parents/coaches are not teaching inappropriate sporting values.
6. Training and development for officers that were not involved but were in a place to stand up and report inappropriate behavior of other officers in other departments (That should also include training on how to report hate crimes to FBI)
7.) An audit of the incentives of hate. Sometimes there are incentives beyond just race and religion. There is financial issues and mental health issues.
Do I believe people will do the right thing? Yes and no. The people in the community have been supportive and showing they don't stand with hate. They also know the antics of this group and their leadership but have social connections to them that make it difficult to say "no" like I did to protect my children. What I can say is that the initial group members are unlikely to see themselves as doing any wrong (the targets are just so worthy of hate!). Furthermore, there are multiple systems at play but at the end of the day the local system must be brought in alignment with national/international law.
Considering that minorities often get the short end of the justice stick I would say my chance of having the right thing come out that would lead to a win-win situation is somewhere around 58% Yes to 42% No. That is the struggle Americans face every day passing the torch from one generation to the next. I have more responsibilities to my community and country than I do to any good old boy network no matter what their are racial, religious or political leanings. It would be easier and safer to say nothing like many may have done before. Just saying! 💁Patriotism is not always rewarded in a free society but it is necessary to keep the system thriving.
Me my plans are to be positive, polite, engaging, help my community, open to reconciliation and be visible and go where I want to go. I have no problem walking into the center of this group and saying "Hi" and being open to a change of heart. What I will not do is sugar coat what happened in favor of silence. Forgiveness is great but as long as the risk is maintained I will not forget. I think that is the right thing to do. Problem resolution, empathy and iron in silk enforcement while not ignoring this groups potential (The sad thing is that most people in the group are really good people but they have toxic members that can intentionally manipulate and use them as flying monkeys. How do we help people, recognize he wrong, and fix it for the future without ruining peoples futures? Not so easy to do but I think what I have here is a good start for solving problems in our American family.)
Let us see what doors open and what doors close.
