Time to Go Into Good Trouble: Kitiki #281
Is Silence Killing Democracy
“The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing,” Edmund Burke warned us.
In the shadows of the recent shootings and faced with irrefutable proof of another tragedy on American streets happening in broad daylight, I see the image of Lady Liberty crying. Seeing this, I and ask myself, “How did we get to where we are today?” Is it because good men are doing nothing?
It’s impossible to keep track of all the vitriol and shaming going on. With all the tweets, posts, and insta-graming of virtual moments we want to go viral, we forget to realize none of this is going to stop, unless in the edited words of Harry Truman we realize, “the buck starts with us.”
The country is filled with rogues trying to steal our country. There are rogue policemen selectively using their power as much to enforce the law as make the law. Unfortunately, the rogues paint a perception many feel exist for many of the members of the police department. Perceptions for many becomes reality. There are rogue politicians performing for the public but yielding to one master. There are rogue parents trying to keep the truth from their children by insisting teachers teach a homogenized version of life. There are rogue pastors whose faith is as empty or full as the collection baskets they pass, honoring and savoring the aura of being seen as God’s emissary of peace and salvation. But in the shaming and blaming of these are the passers-by who hear the truth and deny it. In the blaming there are apocryphal silencers who would rather capture this on tape to be used in court, than scream to the high heavens, “America is being killed! Democracy being silenced.” Standing by asking “Why didn’t someone step in?”
So I ask earlier, how did we get here?
As silent Americans we managed to secure our place in history as a country who convinced enough publishers and School Districts to use books to lie about America. One of the most blatant lie is convincing students the Civil War was about states’ rights rather than slavery. We succeeded in lobbying to ban books which tell the truth about America’s genocide of the American Indian, its massacre of black communities and the internment of American citizens. Oh by the way, we are attempting to again use the Alien Enemies Act to deport American citizens. We managed to secure our place in history by falsely legislating a mantle of forgiveness, love, and Christian principles that the fabled Nazarene would veto. We managed to secure our place in history when we condemn people because they don’t love the way we love; worship the same God we worship and call ourselves better because the pictures in church and bible look like Americans. And what’s shameful, as in Supreme Court Case Mahmoud v. Taylor, parents are suing for the right to dictate what’s being taught in school.
I ask again how we got here.
The moment we thought we were better than anyone else in the world, we failed. The moment we thought our way was the only right way and invaded countries we felt were demeaning women, infringed upon human rights, and forgot about the apartheid in our own country, we failed. The moment money took the high road we lost the moral compass we promised we would be led by, and we are suffering in the pandemic of fear, excess and lies with an epicenter in Congress. Am I wrong? Am I true critical?
How did we get here?
The moments we became silent when we saw people arrested more for the color of their skin than the content of character we failed. When we allowed our education system to become more reflective of one spectrum of society than all of society we failed. When we decided a melting pot was the way to picture America by assimilating all cultures in the dominant Eurocentric culture, we failed. When we kept silent again the momentous rock that gained more and more by our lack of concern and roll over us, we allowed evil to succeed.
In a country that works harder to limit voting how can we not know how we got here? In a country that makes education a criterion for success then make education so expensive few could afford, how can we not know how we got here? How can we not see we are the country the Pope alludes to as part of his last message to condemn the “contempt” …government leaders, direct toward “the vulnerable, the marginalized and migrants?” [1]
And by acquiescing to silence rather than oppose what we saw happening in America, how can we not know that’s we got here?
Now what are we going to do about it?
I’m 74 years old, retired Army veteran who’s speaking up. I feel it’s time.
Being Silent Time to admit we are better than this. Time to apologize to each other, and the countries we called inhuman. Time, we took down the scarecrows of hypocrisy; raise the flag of freedom and admit we have been slipping down the road to perdition too long. Sanctioning others. Bullying ourselves to the front row for a photo-ops has severely damaged our narrative. It’s time to grow. Grow into the people our forefathers meant for us to be. Time to speak up so people aren’t afraid to tell someone doing something wrong Americans are indeed better than that. Otherwise, the warranty on our constitution that gave each of inalienable rights has been voided because we kept silent.
As Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., once said, said “In the end, we will remember not the words of our enemies, but the silence of our friends.”
[1] Pope Francis' last Easter message: Jesus' resurrection makes Christians pilgrims of hope - Georgia Bulletin - Georgia Bulletin