Quick Thought: The Covington School Incident

The political, economic, and social temper of this country is so volatile that it appears more potent than the eruption of any of the Earth's super volcanoes. Case in point, the incident that took place last weekend in Washington DC. A series of marches and rallies were taking place, including the "Pro-Life" march and the "Indigenous People's" march. On the steps of the Lincoln Memorial (only a few days from Martin Luther King day, of all days) an incident involving hate from both a religious and racial focus took place.

The most sought after culprit in this incident were the students of "Covington Catholic High School" who, in most videos of the incident, seemingly went after a Native American Elder. While the Elder plays his drum and chants trying to defuse the the situation, and one of the students, wearing a MAGA cap, stands silently before him (according to the student, he was doing to this in the same vein as the elder (BBC)), while his classmates chant behind him. These chants included such phrases as "build the wall", and other school related items.

What is overlooked in this incident is how did it actually start? Considering that many of the kids were wearing MAGA hats, apparel seen by many as a symbol of hate, many put the blame on them. As I have found with many of the these incidents, much still lies beneath the surface, and as a student of history, context is important to understand why an event happened. This level of depth is beyond what many reactionaries want as a quick clip or sound bite does more to prove their ideological beliefs.

The students are completely blameless in this, as so wonderfully said by Alec Guinness in the first Star Wars, "Who is more foolish? The fool or the fool who follows him?" An extremist religious group known as the "Black Israelites" were seen in the footage just prior to the aforementioned incident provoking both the Native American group and the Students, shouting inflammatory comments (Washington Post). Their comments may have stirred bad blood and heated it to the boiling point.

In closing, it's confrontations like this that create my ambiguous opinion on the political and social culture created under the Trump administration. While first simmers of this can be felt all the way back to the Bush administration, the whole nation now seems to be exploding. While on one hand, a shake of the status quo in politics is a good thing, shaking of stagnation and getting people to think; on the other hand, it seems like we're spiraling down a deep chasm that no one seems bothered to want to get out off.

Links:

https://www.washingtonpost.com/religion/2019/01/22/who-are-black-israelites-center-viral-standoff-lincoln-memorial/

https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-46943364

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Black_Hebrew_Israelites