A weekly blog intended to share and preserve the most valued life lessons from the minds of the most experienced among us. The "hour late" represents the later stages of life. I will be speaking with people in their 70's and older, to find out what they think is important and worth passing on to future generations.
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In part two of this four part series, Pat shared some of his thoughts on violence and discrimination in America.
I think for the most part people are good, and want to do good things. They want to be loved, they want to be kind to others, and they want to be thought of as good. Once in a while I'll come across someone who really challenges that thinking and that's when it's hard to embrace the notion that underneath all people is a good person. There are really some people that test that way of thinking.
The phrase hate crime is something I've really only begun to hear in the last thirty years of my life.
In Detroit in the early 80's there was a man by the name of Vincent Chin. He was beaten to death outside of a bar in Detroit because some people at the bar hated him and what they thought he stood for. In the early 80's Detroit was struggling economically. The auto industry was not doing well and a big reason was because Japanese imports were making big inroads in terms of auto sales in America. A lot of autoworkers were losing their jobs or had their careers in jeopardy because of Japanese auto sales. What the people who killed him didn't care to know was that Vincent Chin was not even Japanese; he was Chinese.
Another guy named Matthew Sheppard was probably in his late teens and was gay. He was tortured and beaten to death by some men that thought his kind didn't deserve to live.
The last example I'm going to give is of this guy down in Texas, I think his name was James Byrd and he was a black man. Some folks in Texas didn't think he deserved to live, and they tied him up with a rope and dragged him behind a vehicle for miles and miles and miles until he died.
James Byrd only crime was being black, Vincent Chin's only crime was looking Asian, and Matthew Sheppard's only crime was loving someone that some people thought he shouldn't love.
I talked about my mother being nonjudgmental, but there's a thin line between being nonjudgmental and being discriminating as to what's reasonable and fair and loving. Those kinds of hate crimes should not be tolerated. I'm pleased with some of the steps the nation is taking to combat hate crimes, but we are not there yet and we still have a long way to go.
I completely agree with Pat. We have truly made progress when it comes to equality and opportunity as a country. In Pats lifetime we as a nation have seen the end of segregation, equal voting rights, and most recently marriage equality for same sex couples. However, there are still people constantly breeding hatred with their thoughts and actions. In order to move towards becoming a more compassionate and intelligent society, we need to embrace a more empathetic mentality by thinking more positively about all human beings. While at the same time having no tolerance for crimes based on childish discrimination.
How can we call ourselves civilized when people honestly believe that certain skin tones can make a person inferior? Why was there ever any controversy over the right for two adults who are in love to be united in matrimony? When will people be held accountable for ruining lives and destroying families through unjust immigration laws? Life is hard enough as it is; there is no need to make it harder on people who are just trying to do their best to survive.
Name: Pat Cannon
Born: 1942. Northeast Detroit, Michigan
Roles: Kid, Student, Employee of Various Types, Manager, Administrator, Father, Grandfather, Husband,
Pat is the former Director of the Michigan Commission for the Blind, Former Director of the Michigan Commission on Disability Concerns, and Former President of the National Council of State Agencies for the Blind. President Bill Clinton appointed him to the U.S. Access Board in 1997 and he served as the Board's Chair in 1997 and 1998, he returned to the Access Board again when President Barack Obama appointed him to be a board member in 2014. He was named Disability Policy Advisor to Michigan Governor Jennifer Granholm in 2003 and also her ADA coordinator in 2004. Pat also threw the first pitch at the Tigers' home opener on April 4, 2005. He was the first blind person to do so.
Part 2 of 4