Wet behind the ears and full of vim and vigor, Cher and I descended upon Highlands Intermediate School in Pearl City in the early 1960’s. During the 8th grade she received an assignment to correspond with a politician, and she chose George Wallace, the Governor of Alabama. She asked him why he supported segregation, since it clearly was not fair to the segregated group. Surprisingly, he agreed. He said that segregation should be eliminated; however, he felt that society wasn’t yet ready to take that momentous step forward.
Change is difficult to deal with. There will always be those pulling us forward and those of us pulling us back. In addition, the pace of change has increased . . exponential rather than straight line, which explains the 30 percent that support Donald Trump. The 1950’s is more comfortable for some, the 1930’s is even more comfortable for others, and 1850 is even more comfortable for many others. And, let’s not forget the 1000’s to 1200’s for a lot of the recalcitrant groups and religions throughout the world.
If advancing technologically, socially and economically is our goal, we will have to figure out a way to help everyone move into the 21th century . . then perhaps we can prevent those left behind from trying to destroy all that they don’t understand.
But, it won’t be easy!
And, in the current context, there is another point to be made here.
You can’t wait until the recalcitrant decide that you are ready for change, because, using the civil rights movement as a gauge, it won’t happen for hundreds or thousands of years.