Dog Whistles

I have always been told that dogs hear a wider range of frequencies than humans do.  Because of this, I have always believed that the whistles that are sold that make no sound I can discern are audible to dogs.  I have watched dogs respond to these whistles.

Because of this phenomenon, the ability to silently summon a dog with a whistle, a slang term has been used repeatedly in American language.  When someone uses language that sounds benign, but is coded for a certain audience to hear a different message, that is call using a dog whistle, or dog whistle rhetoric.

The problem with dog whistle rhetoric is how powerful it is.  Most of the people hearing a coded message will never hear the intent, or the dog whistle.  They will hear benign words, and wonder what those of us who understand the code are so upset about.

And mostly, it is impossible to convince them that there is a coded message that they don't understand.

Throughout the 2016 presidential election campaign in the United States, many people, including me, heard the coded message.  We heard a call for white supremacy.  We heard a call for the degradation of women.  We heard a call for mistreatment of people of color.  We heard a call for hate and fear.

Those of us who heard these whistles often found ourselves at odds with family and friends who heard no offense in "Make America Great Again".  Even when Donald Trump mocked a disabled reporter, dismissed a war hero, mocked a Gold Star family, and bragged about sexually assaulting women, those family and friends stuck with the Donald.

Now, in 2017, we have had an American woman die at the hands of a Nazi in Charlottesville, VA, a quiet mostly liberal college town in the foothills of the Blue Ridge mountains.  Thousands of white supremacists converged on Charlottesville, VA to protest the removal of a statue of Robert E. Lee.  That was their stated purpose.  Many of us heard a dog whistle for a showing white strength, white supremacy, and a strong message of division.

There is a time in each person's life, and in each country's history, that people must decide who they are.  I am not a racist.  I do not believe any race is superior or inferior to another.  I do not believe in binary genders, or that gender and sexuality are the same thing.  I believe that love happens between individuals, and that all of us are on a continuum for what gender types we are attracted to.  I do not believe that any one gender is superior or inferior to another.  I believe that we are all born differently abled.  I do not believe that my abilities or disabilities make me superior or inferior to anyone else.  I believe we all have the right to practice or not practice any religion we choose.  I believe none of us have the right to force our religious beliefs on anyone else.  And I believe no one religion is superior or inferior to another.

I reject and condemn anyone who supports hatred, violence and separation.  I reject and condemn anyone who supports people who have a racist, or sexist, or xenophobic agenda.

It is time for Americans to be loud in their rejection of the hatred that is rampant right now in our country.  The time to make nice is in the past.  The time to be silent and hope that good people will come to realize they have to take a side is past.

Everyone has to take a side.  Either you support hatred, and violence to advance hate, or you reject hatred, and the violence used to advance hate.   Silence makes you complicit.

The saying either you are part of the problem or part of the solution has never been more true than it is right now.

I'm not telling anyone that they have to put a sign in their yard, or pick a fight with their neighbor.  But we all need to speak up when we hear the hate.  We all need to call on our President, Senators and Congressman to loudly decry the forces of hate that are getting stronger in our society.  We need to change the channel when someone on radio or television gives a microphone to the hatemongers.  We need to not visit internet sites that promulgate hate.

More than 400,000 Americans died in World War II to defeat the Nazis and Facism, and now we have thousands of Americans embracing these causes.  We must not allow them to disrespect the sacrifice of those brave individuals who gave their lives for freedom.  We must shun them.  We must take their platform and their microphones away.  We must force them to live in the shadows, as no decent American wants to hear their message, or see their faces.

The only way to stop the tide of hate that is sweeping over America is for all good people to stand together against it.  The cost of doing anything else is just too high.