After reading John P O’Rourke’s My Turn column on Equality in the Dec. 10 issue of The Recorder, I decided to become another white male writing on the editorial page of the paper if for no other reason than to annoy the aggrieved members of a local political Facebook page.
John believes that equality does not exist on our earthly plane (“our equality only exists in the eyes of God”) so therefore, by default, we are not responsible for equality — all we have to do is work hard and never quit and we will be successful. And, if we are not successful, it’s our own fault — which I imagine is why John lost his local election earlier this year.
John quotes Admiral William H. McRaven, the former SEAL Team Commander famous for his “Make Your Bed” speech and for his autobiographical story which John apparently didn’t read because McRaven explicitly writes how he would have washed out of the SEAL Program had he not been given a second chance after screwing up.
Was he treated with equality by those who gave him that second chance or was he just lucky that someone cared enough to save him? And what about all those who didn’t get the second chance when they screwed up? Didn’t they work hard?
To be successful, one must “lead, follow or get out of the way.” I get the feeling that it may be time for John to get out of the way and let “a millennial” (as John phrased it) take over. Because “a millennial” understands that life is not fair, nor equal in its opportunities and it is that millennial generation that are willing to accept the premise that some people of certain cultures and colors and ethnic backgrounds and religions don’t get the fair shake no matter how hard they work and how much they refuse to quit. That they are smart and they would be near the top if only they were given the level playing field people like me and John (white guys) take for granted.
The concept has nothing to do with the boogey man “socialist nanny state” John so fears. The government is not going to take away my rights by giving other people those same rights.
I often think about my own naval experience in the same Fleet McRaven served in. According to a 2018 Study by the Council on Foreign Relations, “Racial diversity decreases at the upper echelons of the military. While the officer corps has similar levels of racial diversity as the general population, those with higher ranks — Generals in the Air Force, Army, and Marine Corps, and Admirals in the Coast Guard and Navy — are disproportionately white. There is an even greater ethnic disparity in the top ranks.”
So, if we are to believe John’s theory, only white males work hard enough in the military to get advanced to the top. White privilege and implicit bias are not factors in the resulting white pyramid structure of our current Military.
Wid Perry is a resident of Greenfield.