I remember while on a trip to D.C., I walked into a CVS and I couldn’t help but notice the amount of security and protection the tiny market had in place. I remember walking towards the back to grab something generic to purchase and seeing someone that looked a lot like me but much younger shoving random supplies into their book bag and then having noticed me the level of shock in his eyes. I looked away. The teen hurriedly zipped up their book bag and paced towards the exit.

What would you have had me done? Stopped him and alerted the clerks and called for the authorities? Taught the kid a lesson on theft? Had him thrown into our punitive system of justice and have this mark on his records? I have no doubt that the youth understood the consequences to his actions. It also gave me a glimpse into the reality of the world that he lives in. In observing the presence of crime, we have to deepen our gauge and see the elemental causes and not simply the committer.

We live in a country in which certain communities are not only overly-policed but also socially neglected. We don’t live in a post-racial society when the foundations of our systems were rooted in white supremacy. The founders lived in a completely different world than the one we currently reside in and despite building on their legacies further we continue to nostalgically romanticize their ideals. In our nostalgia we forget that crime has always been intertwined with race. We forget that systems were put in place so that not everyone had a seat at the table. We forget that it took collaboration from all walks of life so that we could continue to work towards all people being created equal.

Now that certain historically disenfranchised groups have gained access to resources such as education and a “right” to vote you would have us continue to be disillusioned to societal orders that have always played us as disposable commodities? We have to see the systems that we all are players in for what it is. How it favors others and leaves others to dry. In leveling up the playing field it doesn’t mean it punishes the group that has always had a social advantage but it brings the historical “pawns” in our society to bishop statuses.

This summer of 2020 I had the opportunity to travel through South Dakota and Montana. I wanted seclusion and solitude away from the city life. Away from the perspectives of the world that had become custom to my reality. I wanted to see if I had been disillusioned by living in a progressive city the past two years, having before gone to a liberal college in a bubble college town and then having been conditioned in the suburbs of Dallas. I wanted to be fully and conspicuously black without being diluted by praise from white peers. (Though I still feel as if I stick out living and working in these white spaces). What better way to stick out even further than in the Great Plains and through the Glacier Valleys of this adolescent country.

Traversing through this majestic land, I was able to humble my ego. Before experiencing the people I gave myself time and space to hear the natural world flowing all around me. From sleeping outside on cabin decks underneath dancing stars to 40 feet jumps into open waters, I was able to fully let go. I was able to understand the grazing of the buffaloes over the plains and ride out the gushing waters of the rapids. Despite wishing spaces like this were normal ventures for people like me, I was grateful to simply be.

These so called “red” states are so beautiful in their natural elements and are inhabited by wonderfully delightful and hospitable people. Yet, these same proud people, I feel, are straying away from the substantial depth that they harbor through their roots. As a worldwide epidemic has been going on I was able to see communities continue to be communal through music showcases on main streets, pork roasts, open casinos, packed bars, and without a care for PPE. Despite being an anomaly not only for my skin color but also for my wearing a mask, I was able to listen to their thoughts on how public health directives were infringing on their autonomy.

These inviting souls that I had encountered were “done with the bullshit” and held their liberties to such a stranglehold that they forgot the responsibilities to their country and fellow countrymen. We don’t live in a world of absolutes and as mainstream media might paint certain pictures of certain groups of people we all have to remember the complexities of our beings. We have to understand the humanities of our conservative brothers and sisters just as much as their liberal counterparts. We have to understand the spectrum that we all reside on from the aggressively conventional-minded to the aggressively independent minded. And we have to learn to engage each other to separate the politics from the humanities. Black Lives do matter and we need to focus on bringing the least of us up, trickle up economics. We have to understand that as humans we have an innate fundamental essence of finding purpose and we can’t allow the government to dictate every quadrant of our lives. There used to be days of conservative Democrats and Liberal Republicans but yet we’ve lost sight of what being a dynamic human consists of.

I’ve penned this open letter to all parties so that they can understand that we are all doing each other a disservice the more we latch onto “talking points” on the news and don’t take the necessary steps to listen to views that might not align with our own personal philosophies. We all need to view the realities of the worlds we’re not accustomed to and make sense of the whole picture instead of blindingly holding on to our “truths.” The more we continue to weaponize human issues, the more we all continue to be disillusioned to the real problems at hand.

We all have a responsibility to ourselves, to each other, and to the natural world around us. It’s time we genuinely listened to each other, understood the injustices of the world, and acted to protect our environments. And as for me, I’ll do like George Bernard Shaw and be “thoroughly used up when I die, for the harder I work, the more I live.”

Peace, Love, and PPE

J.K. Tobleman