White Supremacy

Seems my little burg is back in the news again. It was talked about 150 years ago but then faded from history but now back on the front pages of the few remaining newspapers.

There is tension in the air.

Just as this township was about to become hip with breweries on every corner and chic restaurants opening and closing like a swinging door we are on the news for all the wrong reasons.

It is not the weather that has been lovely all year or the boom in real estate development or the passing of ERA ratification to amend the Constitution, but the breaking news is about a gun rally.

Seems after years of watching mass murders and daily reports of where a shooting took place, after years of hem and haw talk and no action, after children begging for adults to stop the carnage, this governor and this year’s general assembly set up points to legislate gun laws.

Legislation requiring background checks on all firearms sales and transactions. The bill mandates that any person selling, renting, trading, or transferring a firearm must first obtain the results of a background check before completing the transaction.

Legislation banning dangerous weapons including bans on assault weapons, high-capacity magazines, bump stocks and silencers.

Legislation to reinstate allowing only one handgun purchase within a 30-day period.

Legislation requiring that lost and stolen firearms be reported to law enforcement within 24 hours.

Legislation creating an Extreme Risk Protective Order, allowing law enforcement and the courts to temporarily separate a person from firearms if the person exhibits dangerous behavior that presents an immediate threat to self or others.

Legislation prohibiting all individuals subject to final protective orders from possessing firearms. The bill expands Virginia law that currently prohibits individuals subject to final protective orders of family abuse from possessing firearms.

Legislation enhancing the punishment for allowing access to loaded, unsecured firearm by a child from a Class 3 Misdemeanor to a Class 6 felony. The bill also raises the age of the child from 14 to 18.

Legislation enabling localities to enact any firearms ordinances that are stricter than state law including regulating firearms in municipal buildings, libraries and at permitted events.

 SB 35, which would allow localities to ban guns from public events, actually would repeal the current law that restricts localities from enforcing ordinances that would prohibit the purchase, possession, transfer, ownership, carry, storage, or transport of firearms or ammunition was passed.

SB 69, amends the current law, only allowing Virginia residents to purchase one handgun a month, or in a 30-day period was passed.

And, SB 70 requires a background check on all private transfers of firearms was passed.

One bill, SB 16, was struck from the record, which included the ban on assault weapons, high-capacity magazines, bump stocks and silencers.

So the city is on pens and needles. What will happen when predicted thousands of gun activist go to the capitol grounds?

The last rallies were been over old Confederate general statues. Confrontations took place and one person died and many were injured.

Now this commonwealth that I live in is an Open Carry state including concealed weapons. That means anyone I pass on the street might be carrying a loaded gun.

Even the Tummy Temple has put out notices asking patrons not to bring in guns. Is this necessary? Who would have a shootout over the price of broccoli?

Fully understanding the 2^nd amendment and the strong feelings about those who support but I wonder verbiage written when the colonies had just run out the British overloads and the constant threat of attack by indigenous people whose lands we were stealing was still a present danger so the public was allowed (not required) to have weapons for self protection or if a militia needed to be assembled before the department of homeland security was formed.

So next week a group of people will come to town and assemble to state their views on these legislative bills (pro or con). The governor has declared a ‘state of emergency’ so no guns can be brought onto the capitol grounds. The lawyers are arguing about that as this is written.

The point is with the polarizing atmosphere around terms like “Neo-Nazi” and “White Supremacist” are being thrown around only to fuel the fire.

Like middle school kids learning derogatory words like “Queer”, “Fag”, “Slut”, “Pussy”, “Redneck”, “Reb”, “Yankee”… the list goes on and on. Lots of this talk will probably be heard next week so there may be some bleeping out of news reports.

The question is about the term “White Supremacy”?

The dictionary defines the term as the belief that white people are superior to those of all other races, especially the black race, and should therefore dominate society.

Now if history is correct, the Anglos seeking religious freedom from persecution or the Latinos seeking riches or the odd adventurer or entrepreneur looking for a startup, they came to this continent and like all the other lands discovered; conquered it. The people who lived here had no chance for invaders had hundred of years learning how to fight each other in war after war.

Combine that with slavery and sure enough the white man gets a bad reputation and rightly so. Was it the color of the skin or the power (which included the gun)?

As a point of reference growing up in this village, there were two sides of the street. One side was stores and restaurants and hotels and shops with people who looked like me. They looked like the people I went to school with. They looked like people in my church. They looked like people who played golf and tennis at the country club. They looked like all my cousins at the beach.

There were people from the other side of the street but they shined shoes and cleaned the bathrooms and washed the dishes. They were red caps and maids and trash collectors and janitors.

The two sides didn’t intermingle. That was the way it was.

Nothing changed until the 70’s in this town and it was a long slow process that is not over yet.

I check the ‘W’ box when asked about cultural background but should probably choose ‘other’. White is more of a pinkness color more than white. A vivid tangerine or a yellow orange. Maybe a salmon or a melon or burnt sienna? Or a peach or apricot? Not a burnt umber or copper or sepia. Haven’t met anyone who is cerulean but I may be missing out on something?

White is the lightest color and is achromatic (having no hue). It is the color of fresh snow, chalk and milk, and is the opposite of black. White objects fully reflect and scatter all the visible wavelengths of light. White on television and computer screens is created by a mixture of red, blue and green light.

Supremacy is the state or condition of being superior to all others in authority, power, or status.

Ascendancy, predominance, primacy, dominion, hegemony, authority, mastery, control, power, sway, rule, sovereignty, lordship, leadership, influence, predomination, paramountcy, prepotence, prepotency, prepollency, dominance, superiority, preeminence, advantage, incomparability, inimitability, matchlessness, peerlessness, greatness or distinction are some of the terms used for the power of one over another.

It seems our species strives for supremacy. There are Kings and Chiefs and Emperors and Popes and CEOs who rule over others. They require loyalty from their followers. Those who do not obey the rules are warned that pain of imprisonment or worse could be the consequences.

So what will happen Monday?

It may just be a shouting match with flags waving and fist shaking or it could become a battlefield. Time will tell and all sides will report their views or social and unsocial media.

It is just a sad sign of the times we live in and it is right down the street. The capitol appears to be an armed camp and there are plans being made in local hotels.

Tomorrow when I go pick up my medicine refill, do not judge by the color of my skin or the activities around me. I have no desire for supremacy or dominance (just ask my wives).

I’m not packing.