There is a double standard in this country. People are disingenuous if they say it is elites versus the rest of the country. Even the word “elite” has become some thing akin to a swear word. The same can be said of” establishment”. They are distractions in the way the Hunger Games were used as a distraction in that famous series. There are rich people in this country who do a lot of good just as there are people in government who are there to help people. I’m not sure if that is the definition of establishment because it seems to include the media. I honestly think one or both includes “people I don’t agree with”. It also includes the “rigged system”; which is a catch phrase for reasons to be angry.

What I am sure of is that there is a clear double standard within the country. That double standard applies if you are black; confronting police, work, life. It applies if you are a woman. It applies if you are NOT a Christian of a particular view. It applies if you are not white.

I planned on focusing this on the double standard as it applies to Hillary Clinton and her battle to break that last glass (or marble) ceiling. It’s a microcosm of many of the struggles that we are facing. As we have two new officer involved killings of black men it feels small to discuss it but I think it is still important to look at the double standards we face as a country.

Hillary Clinton is held to such an incredibly high standard that calling out the double standard part is as easy as it is depressing. The Republicans must know that because they have focused all of their efforts on Benghazi, email and now are spiraling into a hole of did she lie when she said she did not send or receive classified material. The FBI cleared her on all charges and so the Republicans want a new investigation and hearings. They are also saying that she has “grossly mishandled” classified material.

The double standard there is laughable. Yes, she used an outside mechanism to conduct basic email communications. This was not how she conducted the business of the government. That may seem implausible to many of us who live on email and social media but if you have worked with the government, when you understand the use and handling of classified material you understand that this makes a lot of sense. To hear the Republicans talk she was discussing classified matters on an open network. When in reality she had three misclassified emails and some unnoted conversations. She did not mishandle secure communications but the Republicans will make this their primary attack on her.

The double standard is astonishing not in the extra a consideration she is given but in the attention what should be a simple matter is given. If Hillary had used gmail would she had been treated differently? We know that answer.

Hillary Clinton tells the truth. She deals in facts. The double standards we deal with on a daily basis are many and I’m too exhausted tonight to go further beyond saying that we cannot continue. Double standards exist everywhere we look but they are incompressible when they come to black and brown individuals being killed for no reason.

We need to change. Its not political correctness its facts and a desperation for change. When will we have a national reconciliation that is real and deep that leads to a nation cultural change? That wouldn’t be bad. It’s  good. It is growth. We need it.