America’s culture is crumbling under our feet. Earlier this year, three high-profile examples of this reality manifested in the same week and dominated headlines on every TV station and in every newspaper.
The first of these examples occurred back on May 1st in New York City when a homeless man, Jordan Neely, died after being subdued on a subway ride by another passenger, Danial Penny, after he threatened other riders. The second example came 5 days later on May 6th when a gunman opened fire at a strip mall in Allen, TX, leaving eight dead and at least seven others injured. The final example occurred just a day later on May 7th when a reckless driver plowed his car into a group of people at a migrant center in Brownsville, TX, leaving eight innocent people dead.
As is perfectly predictable in today’s America, each of these incidents was met with outrage and finger pointing, complete with enough inflammatory rhetoric to all but guarantee that the true end goal for all involved was to score as many political points as possible until the headlines faded into history. Jordan Neely was nothing more than an unhoused, unrecognized talent who was lynched by a white man for being perceived a black burden on society. The massacre in Allen, TX was just another example of gun violence, aided and abetted by gun-worshiping Republicans who ought to shove their “thoughts and prayers” directly up their asses. The incident in Brownsville, TX may have been an accident, but it happened against the backdrop of Texas lawmakers having the audacity to claim that it might not be desirable to have hundreds of thousands of immigrants crossing illegally into their state, so it’s probably all their fault for being bigots.
This has become the American instinct anytime tragedy strikes our communities: Assume the moral high ground, point the finger at the people we don’t like, and make the story fit the desired narrative. Our culture has become so self-centered that we have normalized the manipulation of tragedy to maximize political gain. This would be problematic enough if it were merely a game that we were compelled to participate in because our opponents would if we didn’t, but it is considerably more distressing than that. The most disheartening aspect is the fact that we actually seem to enjoy it. More and more, we are treasuring the opportunity that tragedy provides us to endlessly club each other over the head. The things we say and do in the aftermath of such events hardly feel like efforts to make progress. Rather, they are increasingly disingenuous and are only meant to benefit our own self interests. Perhaps the reason this might be is that we're shying away from confronting a truth that we're too scared to accept: The disintegration of our culture is an underlying cause of these tragedies, and every one of us bears responsibility for that failure.
Our country has been a melting pot since its inception. We aimed to erect a nation that went far beyond the superficial ties of race, nationality, or politics; our commonality with one another would lie in our joint pursuit and belief in the eternal truths of our existence. The very first lines of the Declaration of Independence cannot be read any differently:
“When in the Course of human events, it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another, and to assume among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the Laws of Nature and of Nature's God entitle them…”
The American calling was to honor the sovereignty of the individual, made perfectly in the image of their creator, and to pursue the truth in the world around them by discerning their natural born freedoms. The resulting American culture, which was the manifestation of this belief system in action, would serve as the foundation that would make America the freest and most prosperous nation in human history.
Our nation's healthy and morally sturdy culture produced a strong social fabric that gave new generations of Americans the playbook to success. They were taught that a strong family unit was the greatest privilege they could give their child. They were taught that discipline and hard work were desirable characteristics, and that applying them to their lives meant they could achieve whatever they set their minds to. They were taught to respect their neighbors not only as Americans, but as human beings. And they were ultimately taught to understand the American message so that it could be shared with generations to come.
In today’s world, the message has very clearly changed. Our society is not simply agnostic to the principles and beliefs that carried us this far, but has actually come to oppose them. Our respect for family has declined so precipitously that we no longer consider it remotely desirable. The idea that discipline and hard work are prerequisites to success has been met with charges of racism, sexism, and white supremacy; if what we desire does not happen how we want it, when we want, it must be due to systemic oppressive forces holding us back. A strong sense of community, complete with an inherent respect for the humanity of our neighbors, has been replaced with tribal polarization and the instinct to always attribute to them the worst possible motives. American exceptionalism, and the unwavering belief in the eternal truths contained in the principles established at our founding, has completely devolved into the worst possible outcome: American self-hatred.
This complete dissolution of our culture is evidenced in each of those three tragedies that occurred earlier this year . In the story of Jordan Neely, we learned about a man who was born into a broken home with a single mother. His childhood was traumatized by his mother’s abusive boyfriend, who ultimately strangled her to death when Jordan was only 14. From there, his life story was replete with multiple arrests, violent offenses, and drug abuse. No home life, no supporting family structure, and no community fabric around him to assist him in changing his life’s trajectory. Instead, he was left to become a threat to both himself and others until the inevitable happened. In the case of both Texas incidents, the callousness that we have come to treat human life with was on full display. In Allen, TX, the shooter was identified as someone who was motivated by racial hatred and frequently posted disturbing statements online, even going as far as to say he was motivated to move forward with his attack by the massacre that occurred at Nashville’s Covenant School in April. He also had a history of mental health issues, which were serious enough that he was discharged from the U.S. Army. In Brownsville, TX, the driver who killed 8 people was a hispanic immigrant with a lengthy criminal record that featured multiple DUI’s and reckless driving charges. Two incidents. 16 people dead. Two individuals fallen through the cracks of American society.
It needs to be noted that society as a whole cannot be held accountable for these incidents, particularly in the instances of Allen and Brownsville where there are identifiable perpetrators. However, it is important to recognize that the erosion of American culture, whether intentional or not, creates an environment where tragedy and evil is more likely to prevail.
Let’s remember this the next time that a tragedy befalls our community. Instead of gritting our teeth and eliciting the worst of human emotion in an effort to find somewhere to lay the blame, let’s look in the one place we always ignore: the mirror. The one thing that all of us have within our power to fortify our communities against these tragedies, and to hopefully decrease their frequency in the future, is to commit to revivifying our culture and social fabric in a truly American way. This doesn’t just mean engaging with one another in tough conversations about political policy prescriptions, either. It means committing ourselves to doing our part in making our communities a place where the eternal truths of America can thrive. If we truly want things to change, we must recognize and accept our responsibility to participate in a culture that allows that to happen.
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