There are marked differences in the world around us.
Sometimes they are little things like the difference in the color of a few marbles.
Sometimes they are large. Like the salary of Elon Musk and the average wage of some employees at Twitter entering data.
I see these all the time when I’m looking for subject matter here in the World of Blogginess. Where things are always Bloggy.
Like this entry from some historical notes, just one year apart. The first entry shows the “world” of the white man in 1888. On this date, February 21, 1888, the “Father of American Golf,” a man named John Reid, took a bunch of his white friends out to a cow pasture in Yonkers and demonstrated the game of golf.
Apparently, he played in Scotland and thought it was a good time. So, he brought the game over here to his wealthy friends. He called it the “Royal Scottish Game” and played on an improvised course near his home. The cow pasture.
He founded and served as the first president of Saint Andrew’s Golf Club located in Hastings-on-Hudson, New York. And today, Reid’s portrait by Frank Fowler hangs in the dining room there. The club is the oldest golf club in the United States.
That’s one historical reference I noticed for this date.
Then. Right below was this item.
On this date, February 21, 1898, a black postmaster was lynched. His wife and three daughters were shot in Lake City, South Carolina.
Now, this entry doesn’t even list their names.
I’m supposing you are noticing the difference between the items.
I had to look up the names of this black family.
The man was Frazier B. Baker, an African-American teacher appointed as postmaster of Lake City, South Carolina, in 1897 under the William McKinley administration.
People — white people — were not happy about this appointment. Lake City was overwhelmingly white, with fewer than a dozen black residents. So, those white residents initiated a boycott of the Lake City post office and started petitioning for Frazier Baker’s dismissal.
They filed complaints about his mail delivery practices. So, a postal inspector went down there to investigate. Threats had been made again the postmaster’s life. So the inspector recommended the post office be closed.
A mob of white people burned it to the ground. In response to their actions, the government opened a new post office on the outskirts of town, where Baker and his family were to move. So they did. The threats continued.
Until February 21. That is when another mob set fire to Frazier Baker’s house. They then burst in and started shooting. The first bullet struck and killed his youngest daughter, Julia, who was one year old. The mob then continued shooting, killing Frazier Baker, and injuring his wife and three other children. Two kids escaped without being injured.
As if that were not enough, they hung Frazier in a nearby tree.
Meanwhile, up in New York, John Reid was out somewhere playing golf with his buddies.
Another piece of American History 101.
There are differences in our world. All around us.
=====
We should be talking about celebrating our differences, understanding that those differences make us richer and stronger.
— Diego Luna
=====
Human spirit is the ability to face the uncertainty of the future with curiosity and optimism. It is the belief that problems can be solved, differences resolved. It is a type of confidence. And it is fragile. It can be blackened by fear and superstition.
— Bernard Beckett
======
We’re all human beings, in the end, despite our differences.
— Timothy Morton
=====
Differences. In our world and in our history.
