It is currently something of a recurring theme in my personal life that several disparate individuals that I know are experiencing very significant change in their lives. And the rather distinct thread that seems to be repeatedly tying them all together is that they have each been similarly motivated to finally make that change as a direct result of having reached a point of being to the bone tired. Not just randomly or arbitrarily tired in general. To the bone! But also similarly, explicitly tired of either being treated with inhumanity, or tired of seeing far too much cruelty and inhumanity in either their personal or professional lives.
And after seeing that pattern unfolding around me for some time, the age-old truism finally came back to me, “Humans generally don't change until they have to.” And in most cases they tend to reach that point of having to when they reach that same point of getting to the bone tired of something repeatedly either very ugly or very painful in their lives.
Arguably the single greatest example of someone having reached that particular metaphorical point in American history, is a somewhat obscure young fellow by the name of Martin Luther King Jr. (Though the reality is that there were literally millions of other not so famous mostly Black Americans at the time who had likewise reached that point of being to the bone tired of being treated with impunity and inhumanity too.) And so, despite huge opposition from both within Congress and President Lyndon Johnson himself, King was also at that singular point of being to the bone tired enough that there absolutely had to be major change...right now! And the result was the Civil Rights Act of 1964. The single most far reaching and history making piece of Civil Rights legislation in American history. Borne literally of Black tiredness! And yet, despite it's full enactment in July of 1964, even LBJ is quoted as believing it had no chance of happening as late as January of 1964. Because the political will to pass it wasn't necessarily there in January, but the to the bone Black tiredness most assuredly was!
But a strange thing suddenly happened in November of 1964. After the passage of that landmark Civil Right Act in July, in the ensuing November Presidential election, 60% of white Americans began a sudden pattern of voting consistently Republican. A pattern that continues almost unbroken to this very day.
So here's the simple question. What will it finally take for a majority of white Americans to likewise get to the bone tired of the seemingly endless turmoil and upheaval that racial segregation and racial violence has wrought in their own lives, and demand MLK-like change too? When will the grossness of the regular racial violence stop making them shocked (again and again for literal decades) and make them truly tired of the inhumanity in their midst? When will the seemingly never-ending chatter and controversy be enough to make them tired? When will the unexpected, and yet vast, side effects now impacting tens of millions of their own lives be enough to make them to the bone tired? When will having an endless assortment of bigoted wackos and nutjobs giving the outward appearance of being the majority of white Americans get tiresome? And lastly, when will witnessing the unquestionable rise of fascism (and it's inarguable threat to democracy itself) on American shores be enough to make a majority of white Americans tired enough to demand real change...now?
Change doesn't necessarily happen when people get shocked, or dismayed, or even just angry, or upset. Lasting change comes when humans get truly tired! And as of July of 1964, an extreme majority of everyone else in America has been to the bone tired of racial discrimination and violence except white Americans. What will it take for a majority of them to finally get tired of all the drama, violence and the mayhem too?