Front Page  »  

There’s a sinkhole in my chest

June 28, 2015
David Broadwater

David Broadwater

OPINION By DAVID BROADWATER,

Salty waves burn my cheeks – boiled by the seething rage in my gut.

I was 16 years old when four black girls were blown to bits in their Birmingham church. On the day I became a citizen at 21, Martin Luther King Jr. was assassinated. Today, at 68, I see nine more massacred in their Charleston church.

Although I’m horrified by such barbaric acts, I’m more dejected and enraged by the frantic scramble of white politicians, pundits and media blowhards trying to rationalize this latest massacre as anything other than a KKK-style racist terror attack.

But, what burns the deepest and hottest is my utter disdain for my white brothers and sisters who adamantly and ardently refuse to acknowledge and rectify the chronic, systemic and corrosive racism that permeates our society.

The day-to-day, year-in-year-out degradation and exclusion meted out upon non-whites in our country in the employment, scholastic, criminal-justice, housing and health-care spheres inflict a level of pain and suffering I, as a white man, have never had to endure.

I’d like us to stop doing this before I die. Let’s really live up to our creed of “liberty and justice for all.” Please.

David Broadwater is an activist who has lived in Atascadero for 43 years.


Loading...
Subjects:         
Related:


49 Comments
Inline Feedbacks
View all comments

I thought Obama sounded a little off-key on “Amazing Grace”. Hillary sounds, and looks, tired.Trump just got a Trump Bump for talking bad about Mexicans. Bernie Sanders is scaring me away from socialism at a time that I would like to become a socialist, and David Broadwater is now looking at me with very sad eyes from the set of “Survivor”.


0

I would say that Obama’s singing skills far exceed his leadership ability. Hillary sounds and looks tired because she is.


0

Respectfully disagree, it is nigh impossible for any human being with a heart to sound off key singing that particular hymn in that setting .


0

If you think that is bad, look at what the “white man” did to the American Indians. Go on the Navajo reservation and check out what constant money subsidies does. You will discover is that it doesn’t matter what the color of your skin is, but how people wilt away with government handouts that lock people into a continuous unbreakable cycle of poverty, crime, etc, just as you see with multigenerational white people stuck on welfare.


0

David, I commend you on the sorrowful selfie-image you have captured of yourself.


0

Sandy, I totally believe the listed things are a reason these young people are acting out! Every one of these mass murderers were into most of the things on the list.


Who is hot in the rap world? Snoop dog, a gang member (former?) songs about busting caps in a rival or objectifying women where their only value is their booty. Jay Z and Beyoncé, Kanye, all of them are all about sex and violence.


What are the TV shows..Hannibal….breaking bad….walking dead…..all about killing right? POV video games…billion dollar industry, most profitable purchased by kids and parents was Grand Theft Auto…where you can rape, kill, deal drugs, torture.


Movies….you name it Saw 1-5? About killing, others I don’t even know of.


And we wonder how, why? Religion and morality is mocked…kids are told by society and their phone obsessed parents they are entitled to be famous, rich without hard work, and there is nothing after death…it is all about you YOLO right?


Kids are raised on this crap from birth, mind controlled and natural emotions of care and compassion numbed by the thousands of killings they have witnessed on TV and in their minds participated in playing games like GTA or Call of duty. (POV video games BTW were a product of DARPA to desensitize soldiers for combat in order to kill without hesitation).


And you all think the reason this happens is racism (most recently reported this young troubled man wanted to start a race war…big surprise)? I believe this guy had no feelings, no compassion, nothing. He sat with these folks and watched them pray for an hour. He had to fulfill his sick “mission” he said. Some say it was because of a gun….or lack of gun laws…..or lack of mental health….I believe it is the result of a secular society degrading not unlike the Roman Empire in its quest for blood and self gratification.


0

I am sorry Bob. When I was a kid we didnt have video games but our heroes were Cowboys, Soldiers and Space Explorers who killed Indians, Germans, Japanese, Russian and Space Invaders. Somehow we learned that those were fictional stories and we quit playing GI JOE, Combat, John Wayne and the Lone Ranger. The issue isnt what games play, it is the lack of 2 parent families.


0

You know what I’d like older white men to stop doing before I die?

Posting shirtless selfies. Blech. Talk about pain and suffering!


0

pasoparent15: I blech with you – not the shirtless part, but the pain-and-suffering facial pose.


0

Not one concern about the violent Hollywood movies glorifying killing people, not one word about rap music glorifying gun violence, not one word about psychotic drug use, and not one word about violent video games depicting graphic killing. Every single one of these mass killers have these things in common.


0

Some of those things are products of the environment that’s been created, and you’re deflecting instead of addressing what was stated.


0

All gripe without suggestive remedies. Yawn. It takes decades to win hearts and minds, decades of honorable behavior, behavior that is considered mainstream. Sorry David, neither of us will live long a enough to witness what you wish.


0

Liberty and Equality for all . justice has a malignancy right now and needs a break .


0

Media blowhards trying to rationalize this???? What media have YOU been ingesting?

What else have you been ingesting?


0
1 2 3