This week, a grand jury in Fulton County, Georgia, indicted Donald Trump and eighteen other people.  Based on news reports, the District Attorney’s office has a plethora of evidence, including incriminating text messages.

The names of the grand jurors are public information, according to law.  Today, the names of and information about the grand jurors are circulating in far-right wing corners of the Internet.  Much of the online chatter in these dark online corners refers to this list as a “hit list.”  These are threats of violence and even murder.  Nobody should excuse this disturbing fact.

Free speech is not absolute.  I am a fact-based and peace-loving person who abhors violence, so the following scenarios are improbable and hypothetical, O reader.  If I were to encourage someone to commit murder, I would not enjoy free speech protections.  If I were to urge people to commit arson, I would lack free speech protections.  If I were to commit libel or otherwise to defame the reputation of an innocent person, I would be liable in a court of law.  If, by my words, I were to endanger any innocent human being, I would be a criminal.  Free speech is not absolute, nor should it be.  My rights stop at the edge another person’s nose, so to speak.

Words have power.  They can help or harm.

KENNETH RANDOLPH TAYLOR

AUGUST 17, 2023 COMMON ERA

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According to the State of Florida, slavery provided slaves with skills that benefited them in life.  This educational standard has justifiably received the scorn of many people from across the political spectrum, from liberals (such as me) to some prominent African-American Republicans with strong social conservative credentials.  Nevertheless, the Governor of Florida continues to argue that rejecting this educational standard constitutes accepting a “false narrative” and wokeness.

Jon Stewart said in reference to George Santos that it takes shameless people to commit truly shameful deeds.  The tribe of shameless racists–who may not even resort to coded language–has increased exponentially during the last few years.  They are shameless online.  They are shameless in person.  Many of them seem to live in a parallel universe in which 2 = 2 does not equal 4.

I, as a student of history, understand what Koheleth, the author of Ecclesiastes, knew in antiquity:  There is nothing new under the sun.  The circumstances, technology, and issues vary according to time and space, but the course of human events rhymes–often depressingly.  The cult of the Lost Cause of the Confederacy is a demon which minimizes or denies the role of slavery in the Civil War and the founding of the Confederate States of America.  Attempts to whitewash the past are old news.  Racism continues to rear its ugly head–often in the name of nostalgia for a White Christian America which was never what many people think it was.

Painting a smiling face on slavery does not change the facts of that Peculiar Institution.  Denying the truth of the traumas of the past is no way to learn from them and to move into the future with justice in mind.  So, may we all face the past, the present, and the future with an unflinching recognition of objective reality.

KENNETH RANDOLPH TAYLOR

AUGUST 1, 2023 COMMON ERA

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ON AVOIDING A DOUBLE STANDARD

Unlike many other people, I feel no compulsion to express every or every other thought that I have–certainly not in writing.  Also, my historical methodological bias inclines me to sit back, read, and observe before writing or speaking much.  Nevertheless, I do feel free to comment in developing events in the news from time to time.

The handling of classified documents has been in the news recently.  Donald Trump’s case is in a league by itself, given that the federal argument asked for the return of the documents, he refused, and the federal government finally acted to reclaim them.  This is an easy case to evaluate.  However, the cases of Joe Biden and Mike Pence, who have been consistently cooperating with federal authorities, are alike.

For the sake of truth in advertising, I lay my partisan cards on the table.  I cast my first vote in a presidential election in 1992.  I have voted in every subsequent presidential election.  I have always voted for Democrats.  My partisan bias does not mean, however, that I give Biden a pass in this case and condemn Pence mercilessly.  And I do not mistake a partisan affiliation for a cult of personality.

Rather, I sit back, read, and watch.  I also vow to apply one standard to both Biden and Pence in this matter.  I refuse to assume any negative intention in the absence of evidence for it.  I assume, in the absence of evidence to the contrary, that these are cases of the accidental misfiling of papers.  This does not mean that such misfiling is unimportant.  I also guess that such misfiling may be more common than many people may think.

To apply one standard to Biden and another standard to Pence in this matter is to show one’s colors as a partisan hack.  I have no difficulty applying a consistent standard in this case.  Yet acting accordingly is more than one can reasonably expect from many people–including some members of Congress and the punditocracy–unfortunately.

KENNETH RANDOLPH TAYLOR

JANUARY 25, 2023 COMMON ERA

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I have read that one difference between conservatives and liberals is the values they prioritize when values come into conflict with each other.  Conservatives choose law and order over diversity, tolerance, and acceptance.  Liberals establish the opposite priority.  This does not mean that all liberals oppose law and order or that all conservatives oppose diversity, tolerance, and acceptance.  However, I suppose that adherents of the far right–xenophobic, homophobic, openly racist, and frequently antisemitic–oppose diversity, tolerance, and acceptance, by definition.

I am a liberal.  I am an orderly person who manifests a meticulous nature and great attention to details.  My domicile is a masterpiece of organization.  I also understand that freedom cannot exist in anarchy, so order is essential for liberty.  However, certain types of order are antithetical to freedom, civil liberties, and civil rights.  The question is not whether to maintain order per se, but what kind of order to maintain.  I also approach this issue from the perspective of one who has spent his life being a square peg in a round hole, and being keenly aware of not fitting in.  I insist on trying to be my best possible self, not the person others want me to be or to become.  So, if someone has purple hair, this does not disturb me.  Besides, some people look good in purple hair.  And that person’s hair color is none of my business.

I, as one accustomed to not fitting in, have a bias for diversity, tolerance, and acceptance of most differences.  Why not?  Life would be boring if we were all alike.  Variety is the spice of life, is it not?  My commitment to mutuality, a Biblical virtue, is consistent with this attitude.  We all need each other.  We are all responsible to and for each other.  The old-school conservative value of building community makes sense to me but conserving unjust exclusion and enforcing conformity offends my morality.  I regard “conform” and “conformity” as the obscenest words in the English language.  I know the consequences of refusing to conform.   And some purple-haired woman may have something essential to contribute to the community.  How dare anyone exclude her!

KENNETH RANDOLPH TAYLOR

JANUARY 2, 2023 COMMON ERA

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