I Owe. You Owe. We Owe.

It bugged me.  The statement has lingered in the back of my mind for days. It disturbed me.  It rankled.  It irked my soul. There was something wrong with it, something terribly wrong.  Here it is:

"I am white and I am proud to be an American! I was born white, I didn't choose it. I do not owe you anything, whoever you are.”

Does that statement bug you?  Does it disturb you?  Does it irk your soul? Do you see something wrong with it, something terribly wrong?

Robert Fulghum wrote, “The closest I ever come to angry violence is in the presence of someone who says he will not even bother to vote because it doesn’t make any difference.  I see a bumper sticker on the back of an old Buick:  ‘If voting really changed anything, it would be illegal.’  I felt like giving the driver a bumper bang from behind.

He’s typical of those who have a shallow view of history—those who don't understand that nobody has a right to ride on the bus without making some contribution to the cost of the journey.  They don’t respect the fact that somebody else paid the price to build the vehicle of civilization in the first place.  They owe.  We owe.  It’s a moral obligation to participate in the work of society.  If you take from the pot, you must put into the pot.  Even those who have no money can sing and keep the driver of the bus awake and hopeful.”

I owe.  You owe.  We owe.  I am able to write this blog because I was provided a public school education and learned “reading, writing and arithmetic.”  We owe the children of tomorrow the right to write.  The GI Bill and government loans (which I paid back by the time my children began their public school education) made it possible for me to further my education.  I took from the pot and I must put into the pot.  I owe.  You owe. We owe.

The bus we ride was once limited to only white people.  We owe Rosa Parks for making that bus available to all.  We can sit in the back or the front of the bus as we please, but we all ride the same bus.  The “vehicle of civilization” was built at a price.  To ride it, you must pay for the gas—whatever it takes to keep that bus on the road.  I owe.  You owe.  We owe. The arrogance that says, “I do not owe you anything, whoever you are,” is morally repugnant and destructive to society.