OPINION: Opinion: Where were the adults?

Jan. 23--By now everyone and his brother or sister has seen the video of the Native American beating his drum and chanting while a white teen stands by, apparently smirking.

They are surrounded by teenage boys who had been in Washington, D.C. for a Right to Life March. Many of those boys are yelling slurs and insults, others are laughing and ridiculing the elderly Vietnam veteran.

Just before all this happened a small group calling themselves Black Israelites were taunting the teens, who were students at a Roman Catholic school, calling them products of incest among other slurs. This led to the teens taunting the Native American.

Those Black Israelites had also been insulting the Native Americans, telling them their idol worship was the reason they had lost the country.

This incident, in a nutshell, shows exactly what is wrong with America.

We are not politically correct enough.

Are you offended by that?

Good. That proves my point.

Politically correct is the current term for manners. Decency. Open mindedness. Humility.

It's basic message is found in that handbook for political correctness, the Holy Bible. "Do unto others as you would have them do unto you."

Or in the words of that champion of political correctness, Jesus Christ, "Forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us."

Simply put, it means acting like an adult.

Which leads me to the question caused by this incident, "Where were the adults?"

Let's use this incident to make all this clear.

First, these teens were in Washington, D.C., to take part in a rally calling for an end to abortion. They had every right to do so. Making your voice heard on things you feel strongly about is the basis of the American way of life. If you feel something is wrong, speak out.

At the same time the people with whom you disagree also have that right.

How do you reconcile this? By understanding the real nature of freedom of expression. The idea is to have different views presented and listened to so a logical consensus can be reached. Listening to someone respectfully and trying to understand their side, even if it goes against something you KNOW to be wrong, is the first step in winning the argument. But if either side demonizes the other, refuses to accept there may be another side to the argument, then there is no chance for dialogue, no possibility for a person to be swayed to the other side. You have effectively made sure those who disagree with you will not listen to you.

If you have an abortion, you are a murderer. That means a young girl who is raped has no choice but to bear physical testimony of that horror for nine months. And after the child is born she must either take care of the child for the next 18 years, further reminding her of the assault, or put the baby up for adoption, in effect giving up the baby which, as anti-abortion activists claim, is an unnatural position for a woman, who is hard-wired to be a mother, one of the arguments against a woman having an abortion in the first place.

Shouldn't a woman have a right to her own body? No laws are on the books prohibiting men from doing anything they want with their own health care. But if a woman has a right to her body, what about the unborn child? At what point does a fetus become a human being? Remember, six million Jews died because they did not fit the official definition of "human."

And wasn't it interesting all of the young people taking part in the incident were male? The abortion question always seems to be directed at what the woman can or cannot do. Perhaps if men had to face consequences for those births the whole debate would change.

But what about the Black Israelites spouting their hatred? Do their horrible views deserve

a hearing?

Many of us secretly watch that disgusting show Dr. Pimple Popper. There is a strange fascination about watching corruption being expelled from the human body. But if that corruption is not dispelled it can cause health problems.

In the same way, exposing hateful ideas to the light of day is the first step in purging them from our system.

And the hatred spouted by these people serves as proof to one of the lessons I learned in Sunday school. All men are sinners.

So how do we handle a situation like this? The chaperones of the young men being taunted told them to go ahead and answer the taunts with angry words. That is exactly the opposite of what the Christian religion, the teachings of Christ, tell us to do. We are to defeat evil with good, to pray for those who mistreat us, to turn the other cheek.

You mean, be a wimp when someone attacks you? Like that real wimp, Jesus, who refused to let His disciples defend Him and died a shameful death to pay for sins He didn't commit? Boy, this Christian stuff is hard.

And what could reacting like a Christian have done in that situation?

One of those Black Israelites may have been shocked to have the people he was attacking treat him with sympathy and dignity rather than hate. It might have forced him to confront the possibility his ideas were wrong since his hate had been met with love and peace rather than the expected hate. And perhaps the people watching this unfortunate incident might have come to the conclusion that maybe this Christian stuff is more powerful than they realized. Perhaps it would have diffused the situation.

Which leads us to the Native American with the drum.

What this man was doing was using a cultural device to bring calm and healing to the situation. Don't forget, he and the other Native Americans were attacked by the Black Israelites as well. But the young men, because they did not understand someone who saw things differently than they did, saw it as amusing, stupid, contemptible. Their own ignorance held to make the situation more explosive. And I am using the word ignorance to keep from calling them stupid. Many of them were yelling "Build the wall" at the Native Americans. Did they not realize if a wall had been built earlier their lily-white butts would not be there?

The real tragedy of the incident lies in the fact the adults in the situation did nothing to try to resolve it. They abdicated their responsibilities in making these children behave in a responsible, respectful manner. They highlighted the real problem of permissiveness in our country today. By allowing, even encouraging, young people to act so irresponsibly, they were doing more to produce bratty snowflakes that all the participation ribbons ever could.

All this is summed up in the response of the mother of the young man who seemed to be mocking the elderly drummer, who said the problem was caused by the Black Muslims. The fact she did not know the difference between the people taunting her son and another group shows how deep our non-political correctness has gone.

Well, what's the difference between Black Muslims and Black Israelites? They both hate white people. They are all like that.

Just like all the women and children fleeing to the U.S. border to escape gang violence are members of the same gangs they are trying to get away from.

Just like all Trump's supporters are neo-Nazis who want to purge the United States from all those mud people from sh**hole countries.

I understand the problem. I admit there are times when I get so angry with people who so obviously misunderstand the Constitution and the Bible I am ready to denounce them as Satanic heathens worthy only of damnation because they so obviously and willingly side with demons who don't even bother disguising themselves as angels of light.

But before I start to call on God to cast the devil out of them, I stop and remember one thing. God is going to forgive me as I forgive them. And I have a lot to be forgiven.

If only we spent more time looking to our own sins rather than the sins of others, the world would be a better place.

That's how political correctness works. That's what decent people do. That's what Americans do. That's what Christians do.

That's what adults do.

By the way, the young man in the video is contemplating suicide. Let's not make him pay for the sins of the adults. That would not be politically correct.

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