It’s time to break with the past, stop the hate and elect politicians who care
Our Scrabble group meets once a week for sharing our knowledge, opinions, experiences, humor and treats. From time to time, we play a little Scrabble. Once in a while we also touch on topics that merit deeper discussion.
Now that I’m almost 79, in light of our most recent presidential election, I have thought more about our ancestors’ deplorable actions and hateful beliefs directed against black people. White men before us brought them to America in chains on filthy slave ships and treated them worse than they treated animals, enslaving them to work while enriching themselves.
After they were freed, the brutal actions and degrading language continued, including incarceration and lynching for petty crimes and false accusations. Jim Crow, separate and unequal education, “whites only” practices and the denial of the same opportunities provided to white people prevailed.
Even today, many people perpetuate an “us against them” attitude, making assertions such as: “There would be no problem if they were law-abiding citizens like us, if they stopped complaining, if they didn’t bother us with their Black Lives Matter stuff or their kneeling at sporting events.”
In consideration of that, with their courageous efforts, resilient resistance to hate and inspiring words in the midst of the racism around them, I truly believe both Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. and former President Barack Obama definitely deserved their Nobel Peace Prizes.
With that in mind, I am deeply concerned whenever I hear their integrity and reputations diminished, and especially when it is done with malicious intent. Hate groups, with support from President Donald Trump, still have many people believing that Obama is a Muslim born in Kenya and that his kind is what’s wrong with America.
Are we going to remain slaves of our history, or are we going to free ourselves from malicious injustices in America’s past? It can be done if we apply Rev. King’s and President Obama’s transforming values in our lives.
We now have thousands of asylum-seeking immigrants concentrated in camps at our southern border, including many children who are apparently being punished by being kept from their parents in deplorable, wretched conditions. No Christian nation can tolerate this tyrannical treatment.
President Trump is often dehumanizing and demonizing black and brown people, even telling four congresswomen of color to go back to where they came from — which happens to be America. Sadly, those words, once voiced just by blatant racists, are now spoken by a man who doesn’t care what it means to be presidential or isn’t able to express a semblance of compassion for suffering people. As refugees are denied asylum and ICE raids continue, we need to resist and expose that man in whatever positive and effective ways we can.
As I see the big picture, now more than ever, this country needs a caring and effective Democratic president, as well as Democratic majorities in both houses of Congress.
Highly-qualified candidates will need our supporting words and actions — and then our votes to put them in those positions. In preparation, it will be important to stay informed so we can separate truth from lies, and justice from condemnation.
This story was originally published August 28, 2019 at 8:01 AM.