VULNERABLES

Vulnerables.

Child learning to ride a bike ventures off driveway onto road.

Elderly woman confined to wheel-chair, placed in skilled - but unsupervised - nursing care.

Prime-age men unable to find work, accepting positions that fail to utilize or reward their skills and experience.
 
Corporations under siege, investing 114 billion dollars in Cyber Security as of September, 2011.

Human Equals Vulnerable (yes, according to the Supreme Court, corporations are people).
  
So parents, government, educators, media, and special interest groups work to lessen or negate our vulnerabilities.

Knowledge is power. Teenagers are taught not to drive while texting or drinking. Families learn to stagger hospital visits in order to question and monitor the critical care of loved ones. Friends forward emails with tips on how to avoid identity theft, car-jacking, carbon monoxide poisoning, and gang attacks.

Lots of us Vulnerables also follow codes.

The Kid Code: Drilled into our children when bullying, a tragic incident, or accident involving a child occurs. Ramped up whenever a Jerry Sandusky dominates the news.

The Female Code: Drilled into our daughters/ourselves, creating a heightened state of awareness to keep women safe from predators and harm.

The Black Male Code: Passed down for generations, and now being shared in households all over the country since the death of Trayvon Martin.

Truth: I never heard of The Black Male Code until Jesse Washington, a reporter for The Associated Press, recently outlined it to his child. “Always pay close attention to your surroundings, son, especially if you are in an affluent neighborhood where black folks are few. Understand that even though you are not a criminal, some people might assume you are, especially if you are wearing certain clothes.

Never argue with police, but protect your dignity and take pride in humility. When confronted by someone with a badge or a gun, do not flee, fight, or put your hands anywhere other than up. Please don't assume that all white people view you as a threat, son. America is better than that. Suspicion and bitterness can imprison you. But as a black male, you must go above and beyond to show strangers what type of person you really are.”

Some moms also instruct their kids to keep their hands out of their pockets while shopping; and to keep their distance from whites, especially white women. Al Dotson Jr., chairman of the 100 Black Men of America organization, told his 14-year-old son that being African-American “… requires a sixth sense that not everyone needs to have."

Unless you are a Vulnerable.

Fact: Young/old, female/male, black/white, rich/poor, gay/straight, religious/non-religious, most of us are Vulnerables.

Select an ethnic group.  A nation. A sports team/band/celebrity. Vulnerables, all.

If being human means being vulnerable, how many 'codes' must there be?

These codes, along with experience and knowledge can surely make us less vulnerable. But they can’t make us invincible.

Only The Better Angels of Our Nature can. 

I lifted that term from Harvard experimental psychologist, Steven Pinker, who refers to "Empathy, self-control, a sense of fairness, reason, and rationality” as the segments of human nature that steer us from violence.

Methinks they also steer us toward respect, compassion, kindness, and a willingness to care for the individuals we encounter on life’s journey.

Consider The Hunger Games, by Suzanne Collins, a story depicting a government-run competition where 24 randomly selected youths must fight to the death, leaving one live victor.

To watch the film is to sit through a two-hour Vulnerability-Fest. It's disturbing, excruciating, compelling.

Tribute who is most vulnerable dies first. Tribute who is trained, knowledgeable or skilled survives another day to kill or be killed.

Ultimately, survival is assured when Tribute protects - and accepts protection -  from another, when one is willing to die in order to spare another’s life.

The story is quite literally a tribute to I’ve got your back, You've got mine - a practice that, when practiced (and witnessed) turns Vulnerables into Invincibles.

The world may never know what happened to Trayvon Martin in the moments before his death. George Zimmerman, the man who ended Martin’s life, said he felt threatened by the seventeen year-old. By his own account, Zimmerman stoked this vulnerability. Working alone, he stepped out of his SUV to follow Martin- a  youth he deemed a suspicious person - on foot, even though a 911 dispatcher said it wasn’t necessary to follow him.

Human error led to vulnerability. To tragedy.  To outrage.

And outrageousness.

When asked about Trayvon Martin’s death, President Obama responded, "When I think about this boy, I think about my own kids... every parent in America should be able to understand why it is absolutely imperative that we investigate every aspect of this. And that everybody pull together."

Obama continued, “If I had a son, he’d look like Trayvon.”

Newt Gingrich deemed the remarks “disgraceful”: “Is the president suggesting that, if it had been a white who'd been shot, that would be OK, because it wouldn't look like him?”

Rick Santorum suggested that Obama “not use these types of horrible tragic individual cases to try to drive a wedge in America.”

Rewind to January 2011.

Nine year-old Christina Taylor Green is shot and killed while waiting to meet her congresswoman. Speaking at a public memorial service in Tucson, President Obama remarked, “…in Christina we see all of our children. So curious, so trusting, so energetic and full of magic. So deserving of our love. And so deserving of our good example.”

Obama continued: “…we must examine all the facts behind this tragedy... We should be willing to challenge old assumptions in order to lessen the prospects of violence in the future. I believe we can be better….We may not be able to stop all evil in the world, but I know that how we treat one another is entirely up to us. I believe that for all our imperfections, we are full of decency and goodness, and that the forces that divide us are not as strong as those that unite us. That's what I believe, in part because that's what a child like Christina Taylor Green believed. “

In referring to both Trayvon and Christina, Obama called out The Better Angels of Our Nature - encouraging all of us to challenge ingrained assumptions, and treat each other as we wish to be treated.

To judge a person's heart and mind, rather than his race, religion, ethnicity, lifestyle.

Call it Hunger Games circa 2012 where the plot line is: World Hungers for Kindness, Decency, and Justice.

Better yet, call it The Better Angels Code:  I've got your back. We're Invincibles so long as you've got mine.


QUING Hereby Decrees: Rodney King may have said it best; "People, I just want to say, you know, can we all get along?"