{"id":2187,"date":"2016-07-06T22:28:45","date_gmt":"2016-07-06T22:28:45","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.reggiemorrisey.com\/?p=2187"},"modified":"2016-07-11T20:04:50","modified_gmt":"2016-07-11T20:04:50","slug":"wealth-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.reggiemorrisey.com\/?p=2187","title":{"rendered":"Wealth of a Nation"},"content":{"rendered":"<div id=\"pl-2187\"  class=\"panel-layout\" ><div id=\"pg-2187-0\"  class=\"panel-grid panel-no-style\" ><div id=\"pgc-2187-0-0\"  class=\"panel-grid-cell\" ><div id=\"panel-2187-0-0-0\" class=\"so-panel widget widget_black-studio-tinymce widget_black_studio_tinymce panel-first-child panel-last-child\" data-index=\"0\" ><div class=\"textwidget\"><p>I am an American, a Caucasian\u00a0woman\u00a0of\u00a0modest means.\u00a0Many people in the world may assume I am wealthy, and I think they would be right. But what does wealth mean to me, anyway?<\/p>\n<p>Though the daughter of a\u00a0carpenter, I have been able to live many days with fellow Americans in peace, health and comfort, maintaining my good name\u00a0for gainful employment and experiencing the promise of a fulfilling life. I have been able to count on:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Peace\u00a0living in\u00a0safe\u00a0communities patrolled by reassuring peacekeepers in\u00a0caps and uniforms<\/li>\n<li>Health due to\u00a0insurance coverage and access to\u00a0medical care<\/li>\n<li>Comfort\u00a0in a home I could afford<\/li>\n<li>My good name\u00a0in a\u00a0society that acknowledges it, who I am and who, by my actions, I appear to be<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Many black and non-Caucasian Americans live in\u00a0unsafe communities patrolled by\u00a0police who arrive these days in Star Wars storm-trooper gear. Some residents\u00a0got health coverage only in recent years\u00a0and\u00a0have\u00a0miles to go for care. Their attempts to flee to\u00a0safer areas may be stymied by\u00a0racial divides, mortgage hurdles\u00a0and\u00a0purchases burdened by high interest rates. Non-whites of all walks of life say their\u00a0good names are challenged by virtue of\u00a0the color of their skin rather than the\u00a0content of their characters.\u00a0Such crushing reality is at best disheartening and, yes,\u00a0it keeps people down.<\/p>\n<p>When resentful Americans protest that no one helped <em>them<\/em> achieve what they did, my first thought is, \"Really?\" No parent, no grandparent, no big brother or sister; no auntie or uncle, no neighbor, no teacher, no counselor,\u00a0no coach, no doctor, no pastor, no friend,\u00a0no employer, no\u00a0loan officer, no cop? Nobody cut you some slack, gave you a break, lent you a hand; lent you money;\u00a0forgave your foolish choices; guided you; issued only\u00a0a warning; said, \"Yes, you can?\" Really?<\/p>\n<p>When all hell breaks loose in our society,\u00a0we see\u00a0church and community leaders rise to\u00a0heartbreaking challenges and counsel dialogue and peaceful protests.\u00a0Police officers daily rise above fear for their lives\u00a0to see people for who they are and treat them\u00a0prudently -\u00a0within the law. For most\u00a0320 million Americans, such\u00a0exchanges are peaceful.<\/p>\n<p>What is the disconnect that prevents\u00a0an officer from accurately \"Reading the room\" in an encounter, correctly assessing the\u00a0level of\u00a0threat\u00a0in a situation? How have we arrived at a place where a broken tail light leads to a hail of bullets live-streamed on Facebook and then to a\u00a0madman assassinating police officers? I do not know.<\/p>\n<p>But what a false choice we're given by some hard-nosed commentators: Silence all protests\u00a0about questionable deaths lest we be seen as ungrateful to police, or\u00a0condemn all police. That choice is senseless and divisive.\u00a0Why not instead approach\u00a0police officers <em>and<\/em> black people you encounter to speak of\u00a0our\u00a0grief in the midst\u00a0of this\u00a0terrible dilemma?<\/p>\n<p>After all people have suffered to create our society, fragile though it is today, I would rather claim the crown of\u00a0brotherhood\u00a0as part of my wealth than\u00a0ever forsake it\u00a0to silence.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>by Reggie Morrisey<\/p>\n<p>\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>\u00a0<\/p>\n<\/div><\/div><\/div><div id=\"pgc-2187-0-1\"  class=\"panel-grid-cell\" ><div id=\"panel-2187-0-1-0\" class=\"so-panel widget widget_black-studio-tinymce widget_black_studio_tinymce panel-first-child panel-last-child\" data-index=\"1\" ><div class=\"textwidget\"><p><div id=\"attachment_2212\" style=\"width: 310px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.reggiemorrisey.com\/?attachment_id=2212#main\" rel=\"attachment wp-att-2212\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-2212\" class=\"wp-image-2212\" src=\"https:\/\/www.reggiemorrisey.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/07\/Vincent-Mancuso-Patriot-Dream.jpg\" alt=\"Patriot Dream, a pastel by Vincent Mancuso\" width=\"300\" height=\"400\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.reggiemorrisey.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/07\/Vincent-Mancuso-Patriot-Dream.jpg 480w, https:\/\/www.reggiemorrisey.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/07\/Vincent-Mancuso-Patriot-Dream-225x300.jpg 225w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" \/><\/a><p id=\"caption-attachment-2212\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Patriot Dream, a pastel by Vincent Mancuso<\/p><\/div><\/p>\n<\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>I am an American, a Caucasian\u00a0woman\u00a0of\u00a0modest means.\u00a0Many people in the world may assume I am wealthy, and I think they would be right. But what does wealth mean to me, anyway?Though the daughter of a\u00a0carpenter, I have been able to live many days with fellow Americans in peace, health and comfort, maintaining my good name\u00a0for [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2187","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.reggiemorrisey.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2187","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.reggiemorrisey.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.reggiemorrisey.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.reggiemorrisey.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.reggiemorrisey.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2187"}],"version-history":[{"count":28,"href":"https:\/\/www.reggiemorrisey.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2187\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2191,"href":"https:\/\/www.reggiemorrisey.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2187\/revisions\/2191"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.reggiemorrisey.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2187"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.reggiemorrisey.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2187"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.reggiemorrisey.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2187"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}