The OLD NORMAL
By Dr. Paul Fedena
Back in the day…America was living free and had no politically correct speech police, no one telling us what or how to think, no one threatening us with mayhem, destruction and history revision.
It is true that there were some ideologies that we should have jettisoned and some speech we should have been more careful using. But those were individual quirks and personality differences, not wholesale societal ideas or ideals set in stone and characteristic of our society.
It is true that people using illegal drugs were looked down upon. Addiction was not called a disease. It was a negative chosen lifestyle. (Unless you can simply purchase a packaged disease.)
Thanks to peaceful leadership racism was slowly (too slowly) eradicated from our society as a whole. Did I ever hear the “N” word in my circle of friends? Yes. Did I condone it? Never.
Personal Testimony: I had one black boy in my school when I was in eighth grade who became my personal friend. We played horseshoes at recess and lunch time on the same side. One day I saw him downtown on the other side of the street with his black friends and me and my friends from school yelled “Hey George” and he and his friends completely ignored us. That hurt…but I didn’t let it define me. In fact I saw it for what it was - “reverse racism” and peer pressure from his friends. We never quite recovered our friendship as if this didn’t happen, but we continued a more subdued kind of relationship. After college (kind of an all white experience, you know…like there are all black colleges now), I became a pastor and was instrumental in reaching out to literally thousands of white and black children and families. Even now, though semi-retired, I am a member of a racially integrated local church.
It is true that being homosexual was stigmatized and if there were people who identified themselves that way they mainly stayed “in the closet” to avoid harassment. As a Bible believing Christian, I accept what the Bible says about that lifestyle, but I do not harass those in the LBGTQ+ community. I believe transgenderism is un-biblical, and unnatural, but I do not do anything to infringe on other’s rights to believe as they choose.
In the “OLD NORMAL” – of which I was a part – no one would think of attempting to revise history, no matter how repugnant a statue or memorial was to us personally, by tearing it down or defacing it. Agree or not agree with their political or personal agenda, we gave them that liberty and continue to do so.
I have never participated in any illegal act just because I disagreed with its representation. I don’t burn cars or buildings. I don’t shoot police, even when I think or know, they are wrong. I believe in law and order and “liberty and justice for all.” Of course there are bad policemen and politicians, but I don’t target them, harass them, or even hate them. I do expect justice across the board for everyone, and I have a guaranteed First Amendment Constitutional right to PEACEFULLY protest when what I believe and expect doesn’t happen. I have no stated or implied right to commit unlawful acts…and neither does any other American. And I certainly do not have the right to “burn down the system” or destroy, maim, or kill whoever may get in my way or disagree with me. In fact, since we are still pretty much a free society (although that is changing), you can simply buy an airline ticket and move someplace more to your way of thinking.
I was always taught to respect the Stars and Stripes, not because of its colors or even because it is pretty much man-dated in any civilized society to be proud of what keeps the colors of your nation unfurled and flying high. I grew up during the second world war and saw what young men and women paid to have it continue to do so and so I and my and your loved ones were able to live in a free society. And then, although I did not agree with the Korean, Vietnam, Iraq and Afghanistan wars I didn’t burn anyone’s property, threaten their lives, etc. because they didn’t agree with my politics or position. In fact, I joined the U.S. Navy and then the U.S. Army and served my country proudly. I assume that those living today who are participating in the not-so-peaceful protests have never volunteered or sworn to stand against our enemies “whosoever…”
Until the building of the Iron Curtain in Europe after WWII I was politically neutral. Then when our way of life was being threatened and we were being pushed into accepting socialism (as in Naziism), and communism (Russia, China, North Korea, etc.) and then radical Islam I decided to become more vocal. If we had not stood up to Japan and Nazi Germany during WWII we would NOT be free. And if we don’t speak up now against forces attempting to change our Republican Democracy into an Oligarchy, or Dictatorship, the OLD NORMAL will completely disappear! In the words of a church leader who saw what was happening under Adolph Hitler with his absolute dictatorship and racist and especially anti-Semitic policies that produced the Holocaust and reduced his own country to rubble, Martin Niemoller said:
First they came for the socialists, and I did not speak out—Because I was not a socialist. Then they came for the trade unionists, and I did not speak out—Because I was not a trade unionist. Then they came for the Jews, and I did not speak out— Because I was not a Jew. Then they came for me—and there was no one left to speak for me.
By Dr. Paul Fedena
Back in the day…America was living free and had no politically correct speech police, no one telling us what or how to think, no one threatening us with mayhem, destruction and history revision.
It is true that there were some ideologies that we should have jettisoned and some speech we should have been more careful using. But those were individual quirks and personality differences, not wholesale societal ideas or ideals set in stone and characteristic of our society.
It is true that people using illegal drugs were looked down upon. Addiction was not called a disease. It was a negative chosen lifestyle. (Unless you can simply purchase a packaged disease.)
Thanks to peaceful leadership racism was slowly (too slowly) eradicated from our society as a whole. Did I ever hear the “N” word in my circle of friends? Yes. Did I condone it? Never.
Personal Testimony: I had one black boy in my school when I was in eighth grade who became my personal friend. We played horseshoes at recess and lunch time on the same side. One day I saw him downtown on the other side of the street with his black friends and me and my friends from school yelled “Hey George” and he and his friends completely ignored us. That hurt…but I didn’t let it define me. In fact I saw it for what it was - “reverse racism” and peer pressure from his friends. We never quite recovered our friendship as if this didn’t happen, but we continued a more subdued kind of relationship. After college (kind of an all white experience, you know…like there are all black colleges now), I became a pastor and was instrumental in reaching out to literally thousands of white and black children and families. Even now, though semi-retired, I am a member of a racially integrated local church.
It is true that being homosexual was stigmatized and if there were people who identified themselves that way they mainly stayed “in the closet” to avoid harassment. As a Bible believing Christian, I accept what the Bible says about that lifestyle, but I do not harass those in the LBGTQ+ community. I believe transgenderism is un-biblical, and unnatural, but I do not do anything to infringe on other’s rights to believe as they choose.
In the “OLD NORMAL” – of which I was a part – no one would think of attempting to revise history, no matter how repugnant a statue or memorial was to us personally, by tearing it down or defacing it. Agree or not agree with their political or personal agenda, we gave them that liberty and continue to do so.
I have never participated in any illegal act just because I disagreed with its representation. I don’t burn cars or buildings. I don’t shoot police, even when I think or know, they are wrong. I believe in law and order and “liberty and justice for all.” Of course there are bad policemen and politicians, but I don’t target them, harass them, or even hate them. I do expect justice across the board for everyone, and I have a guaranteed First Amendment Constitutional right to PEACEFULLY protest when what I believe and expect doesn’t happen. I have no stated or implied right to commit unlawful acts…and neither does any other American. And I certainly do not have the right to “burn down the system” or destroy, maim, or kill whoever may get in my way or disagree with me. In fact, since we are still pretty much a free society (although that is changing), you can simply buy an airline ticket and move someplace more to your way of thinking.
I was always taught to respect the Stars and Stripes, not because of its colors or even because it is pretty much man-dated in any civilized society to be proud of what keeps the colors of your nation unfurled and flying high. I grew up during the second world war and saw what young men and women paid to have it continue to do so and so I and my and your loved ones were able to live in a free society. And then, although I did not agree with the Korean, Vietnam, Iraq and Afghanistan wars I didn’t burn anyone’s property, threaten their lives, etc. because they didn’t agree with my politics or position. In fact, I joined the U.S. Navy and then the U.S. Army and served my country proudly. I assume that those living today who are participating in the not-so-peaceful protests have never volunteered or sworn to stand against our enemies “whosoever…”
Until the building of the Iron Curtain in Europe after WWII I was politically neutral. Then when our way of life was being threatened and we were being pushed into accepting socialism (as in Naziism), and communism (Russia, China, North Korea, etc.) and then radical Islam I decided to become more vocal. If we had not stood up to Japan and Nazi Germany during WWII we would NOT be free. And if we don’t speak up now against forces attempting to change our Republican Democracy into an Oligarchy, or Dictatorship, the OLD NORMAL will completely disappear! In the words of a church leader who saw what was happening under Adolph Hitler with his absolute dictatorship and racist and especially anti-Semitic policies that produced the Holocaust and reduced his own country to rubble, Martin Niemoller said:
First they came for the socialists, and I did not speak out—Because I was not a socialist. Then they came for the trade unionists, and I did not speak out—Because I was not a trade unionist. Then they came for the Jews, and I did not speak out— Because I was not a Jew. Then they came for me—and there was no one left to speak for me.
