I think a fish could avoid getting caught if he learned to bite the fisherman instead of the bait. With this week’s shooting we have once again become polarized into two camps; some want to ban machine guns, and some of my friends are going out today to buy a gun because they fear that the second amendment is about to be taken out of the constitution. Both camps are thrashing around in someones boat. Our whole society seems caught in a net of polarized madness. Gun control one of two or three issues that are filleting America. This particular hook is baited by a diabolical organization, the NRA. They have taught their members to only vote for candidates that they have approved. They have collected vast sums of money to buy our democracy away from us. Anyone who boils the complexity of who I should vote for down to a single issue is baiting my hook.
Where else are bad people trolling the American democracy? Around issues of race, immigration, and economic class. Here the fisherman baits the hook by saying, “America used to be the kind of place where….” Whatever is said next is designed to polarize. It pits the class that had some special privilege in 1955 against the people who need today what the constitution promised us all in 1784. Hook baiters always make us look back. But today, we have a handful of people, a less than 1%, who fishing with meanness and an arrogant disregard for truth. They lure us into fighting with each other, rather than learning the ways that make for peace. Learning not to bite the hook is difficult. Learning to bite the fishermen is harder. It will require us to boycott certain products, engage in peaceful protest, and trade in our favorite news shows for something more meaty.