TALL TALES
Conspiracy theories are nothing new. I remember the first one told to me. I was 5 years old and riding my new bicycle up and down the sidewalk in front of my house, allowed to go on my own only from the corner to the first alley and back again. There had been a flurry of children’s voices for the past few days talking about a monster who had moved into the neighborhood. It sounded so creepy to my five year old mind. I tried to avoid those conversations.
We lived on the Southside, surrounded by former German/Irish and new Italian immigrants. The Southside of any factory town always means the latest to arrive, or the poorest unable to move on, live there. The Southside of any town is where the river flows, and train tracks are laid out. The downwind side where the smog of factories collects in the air and flows down from their smoke towers, while the effluent chemicals left over from production drain into the river. In our neighborhood the Tectum factory dump lay near the river surrounded by an earthen bank hiding most of it from the street. But, the rejected sheets of shredded wood fiber held together by cementitious binder had piled so high it was visible. The air was filled with grey dust throughout the neighborhood. Playing on the dusty, unstable pile was forbidden. A true incentive to explore was unleashed by Mom’s warnings. That forbidden dump was a mystery to solve. Bored children, not yet solely rational thinkers, were drawn there like flies to…a word a five year old girl was not allowed to say.
The day I first found myself captured by a conspiracy theory is one I have never forgotten. The children noticed I had no interest in their gleeful one-ups-manship stories of the monster. The latest version was that he stole into homes at night. I asked why no one ever actually saw this monster. They responded “because it was night and everyone was asleep!” The monster was stealing jewels, candlesticks, and silverware. I raised an eyebrow at that comment! No one in my neighborhood had jewels or silver and gold anything. There was little worth stealing in our homes. With each disbelieving question I asked the children became more incensed by my disbelief. They considered how to “get me,” as bullies are eager to do. The only thing to be done was to issue a challenge and defeat me somehow.
The challenge was this: Ride to the end of this street, turn left and ride to the river. Climb the embankment into the Tectum Dump. Climb the pile. That is where the monster sleeps during the day. If you do not think he is real, you will do this. Uh oh. There were so many things wrong with this I shook my head “no” at first. If the monster did not kill me and eat me as the children avowed he would, my mother would kill me when she found out. But, proving that there was no monster, and stopping lies which were scaring innocent children like me, seemed worth the risk.
The children followed me all the way up the street. I pedaled as fast as I could, which was so slow they easily kept up with me, chanting scary threats all the way. I stopped at the corner, reassessing the plan. The river seemed so far away, the longest block I would ever traverse alone.
My delay simply fueled the bullying chants. So I turned left and started up the street, pedaling faster than I ever had before. My feet were flying, my hands sweating. So wet, it made it hard to hold onto the handlebars. None of the children left the corner. They remained silent and watched. There could be no retreat.
I made it to the embankment by the river, praying Hail Mary’s all the way. I dropped my bike and ran up the embankment with my eyes closed, saying the Guardian Angel prayer. My knees shook. I felt nauseous. I stood at the top, opened my eyes and looked down into the dump. It looked threatening but I saw no monster. I heard shouting and turned to see children gathered still on the corner saying I had to go in to the dump. So, I did. I climbed that pile and smiled a smile as wide as my smile had ever been, or will ever be. There was not monster. It was all a lie.
I stayed awhile and picked some wild flowers. Long enough so that the children might think I had been eaten alive and was never coming out. I waded in the river awhile. Finally, I gathered my flowers and climbed back out and onto the street, climbed onto my bike and pedaled slowly back to the corner offering the flowers to the children silently riding home.
I had no supper that night. Penance for disobeying my Mother, and for allowing tall tales told by idiot children who cared nothing for my safety to lead me into danger. Mom warned me that I would be told a lot of tall tales (1950s description of conspiracy theories) in my life; and, I would be a fool to believe any of them. She was right.
annarino writes 
Fearful little men
I cannot capitalize the word “ men” in the title. I do not refer to honorable and secure men; but only to insecure little men who must bully others and prey on the weak to prove they are bigger than they are. What they fear is our seeing the truth of who they are, our recognizing their cowardice. At heart they are frauds, con men. It does not matter, in the end, what condition led them to conclude they must cover up fear. Brave men act honorably despite fear. That is called courage: admitting fear, facing it, overcoming it. Refusing to admit fear, conning others to believe they fear nothing, succumbing to fear is called cowardice.
What we see happening on every front around the world is a fraud by cowardly and fearful bullies, supported by dishonorable men who have found fraud a cover for hanging onto great wealth. Dishonorable men hide behind bullies. Honorable men call them out.
Much of the fear of bullies is fear of being seen. White men( and women) know to fear the knowledge held by people of color who have been denied access to wealth and power by dishonorable white people. People who face the threat of harm pay more attention to those threatening their well-being. abused children and women, for example, have a heightened sense and are poised for defense in a way those privileged to have led safe lives need not.
The world has been awakening to past threats which denied human rights to too many since the Declaration of Human Rights, the creation of the United Nations,; and, the example of human rights leaders such as Ghandi, Mandela, and Rev. Martin Luther King, jr.. the feminist and gay rights movements have also posed a threat to white male bullies and misogynists. The Holocaust awakened western democracies to the dangers of anti-semitism. These waves of awakening threaten the hold of the wealthy and empowered, who may not themselves be bullies. But, those among this group who are dishonorable support the bullies without acknowledging their responsibility to those threatened with harm.
The first group of bullies includes persons such as Donald Trump, Vladimir Putin, “ strongmen” on every continent. They are weak and fearful men who cannot accept responsibility for their self-perceived weakness which they hide through braggadocio, fraud and deception. The second group includes persons who push bullies to the front as “ leaders” to hide their own weaknesses and fears, and maintain their hold on wealth and power.
What we are watching in Ukraine is an example of a bully without honor committing a fraud, rewriting history, pretending to be a strong man by preying on others he can subjugate for his and others’ benefit. He is allowed to do this because of that second group, the dishonorable holders of wealth and power: banks, financial institutions, Swift, nations run by strongmen, Right wing media talking heads, heads of state, legislators.
It takes honor and courage to be a democratic republic, the strength to believe in yourself and fellow citizens despite your fears and theirs. Cowards prefer autocracies, undemocratic institutions, and oppressive denial of human rights. It takes honor and courage to speak truth to power as a member of a political party or legislative body. It takes honor and courage to follow and enforce the rule of law. Too often, dishonorable cowards use police forces and judges to guard bullies from legal consequences, and to enforce subjugation of those they fear. We refer to these acts as “ abuse of power.” Those abused by the justice system see more clearly the truth behind the dishonorable seeking only power and wealth.
The same principles driving Putin to subjugate Ukraine are those which drive the Republican Party. This is not new. But, it has been in place for so many years that we who are privileged to avoid the bullies( no one can entirely)for most of our lives have been all too willing to ignore the abuse of others. Racism and sexism are not new. The honorable and courageous among us recognize and admit this despite our fear that we are complicit in the fraud of white supremacy.
I think the reason the invasion of Ukraine is so troubling is not only that Trump,Manafort, Flynn, the Devos family and other American oligarchs, the Republican Party, and FOX TV ( it is not a news station) supported, and continue to support Putin’s agenda in Ukraine. It is far worse. This is a world-wide agenda to undermine democratic institutions and human rights in every city in every country.
Those of us who value honor must oppose this fraud against humanity with courage and persistence. President Biden is right that this will not be easy, that it will take time. My heart aches for the pain, suffering and death being aggressively visited upon Ukraine which will occur in the meantime, the number of African-Americans and other persons of color who will be abused in the meantime, the number of young people who will feed the coffers of oligarchs by the sale of guns and drugs as they die from school shootings and overdoses.
Follow the money. Connect the dots. And for all of us, for every democracy stand together and speak out. Register and vote. Challenge every con and lie. Protect the electoral process. Do not stand silent before the bullies. Have courage! Hold honor dear.
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Tagged as bullies, courage, cowards, democracy, fear, human rights, racism, sexism, UKRAINE, USA, voting rights