Alvin Attles III, son of the legendary Golden State Warriors basketball player, Oakland’s Al Attles, wrote a timely and thoughtful post on his Facebook profile page about an hour ago, today. Without any further ado, here it is:
Sometimes I look at TV and pay attention to social media and feel like we are on a crash course towards being more divided than we’ve ever been. We seem to have less tolerance for each other from an ethnic standpoint, I don’t think I’ve heard the word Nig*er used by other races (And my own race) more in my life. We are building generations of economically repressed, and homelessness is something that is taken for granted and mostly ignored. Republicans accuse Democrats of conspiracy, while Democrats charge the Republican party as being immoral and without conscience. Women feel disrespected and have started a movement that promotes their rights. Blacks try to tell the world that our lives matter. But do they really? Whites seem to be trying to reach across the aisle and have empathy. That is until you see the alt-right right dynamic that doesn’t hold minorities as equal. Hell in a handbasket seems a reality now. “But now dem Doggone Crazy, Mass producing test tube babies. On a wild goose chase laws of nature them just can’t face. Ambition is to mashup the place, who shall save the human race?” I heard that in a song, while I swallowed the last drops of a warm beer. Sometimes the world, and the people in it, seem non-caring. I thought we were supposed to embrace our differences . Maybe not. What will it take for us to close the vast Divide and respect the inalienable rights of everybody human despite their age, race, gender, party affiliation, sexual inclination, or economic status? When you figure that answer out, please hit me up. In the meantime, take care of your family, take care of yourself. Identify something that inspires you to get up every morning.
AAA, lll
More often than not, I fear social media is a terrible drug that has served to not just divide us, but collectively dumb-down society. With it, we can limit our contacts to people who think like we do, and filter out any ideas, regardless of merit. Enforcement of our libel laws don’t seem to have kept pace with social media – and in the case of a number of platforms, the CEOs have been reluctant to curb bad users under the “idea” of free speech. That, and other developments, have created the World AAA III wrote about, today.
Stay tuned.