A Blanket Won’t Cover It

I have an aversion to blanket statements especially when they appear on Facebook and someone suggests that I “agree and share.”  A blanket statement is a statement covering an unlimited amount of people “across the board.”  It assumes the statement is true and all-embracing  for everything or everyone covered by the “blanket.”  A “generalization” is a “blanket statement.”  Both are all embracing.  A generalization is a sweeping statement (not allowing for exceptions) which fail to acknowledge other factors, ideas, or circumstances.  Examples of a generalization or blanket statement might include the following:  All apples are red, All buildings are square, Men never ask for directions, or All Christians are good people. 

When people urge me to agree and share that I  “Support the military” or that I “Support Law Enforcement” they are asking me to embrace ALL there is about the military and ALL there is about law enforcement.  They are covering the whole of the military and the whole of law enforcement with their blanket statement.  Such statements place me in a quandary.  

When I am asked to support our troops or our military I cannot help but think of Mei Lai.  I cannot help but think of Abu Grabe or Guantanamo.  I cannot help but think of the “some” and normally they are the “few” who make the blanket statement an unacceptable one.  The same is true of the blanket statement Support Law Enforcement and of course, I do—BUT….  I cannot help but think of March 7, 1965—Bloody Sunday—when law enforcement meted out an unnecessary violence on those unarmed and wholly innocent men, women and children crossing the Edmund Pettus Bridge.  I cannot help but think of the law enforcement officers now taking children from their parents at our borders, or the police in a nearby city using their power for unlawful harm upon the people they were paid to protect.  

Every basket of apples is bound to have a few rotten ones.  Please do not ask me to lie and assert that all the apples in every basket are good.  I know better and you do too.  Blanket statements and generalizations are nebulous and there are better ways to make our point without sacrificing our mental integrity.