TODAY WE NEED THE MESSAGE OF KING, GANDHI, CESAR E. CHAVEZ, DOLORES HUERTA AND MANY OTHERS WHO PREACHED AND LIVED LIVES ON NONVIOLENCE.
This past year we saw too many blacks and Latinos killed by police violence which led to massive demonstrations nationally and internationally. This was a multiracial and most diverse response to violence that we had never seen before.
Also in the background was a large increase of hate crimes aimed at people of color, Muslims, and Jews. It was as if it was a national racist game trying to figure out who was the easiest target of the day.
During this pandemic, we have seen an organized campaign to minimize the virus and to push back against the masking and social distancing protocols. This led to armed and aggressive groups to demonstrate against public officials who were trying to protect this city. And one group planned to kidnap the governor of Michigan.
As the election results were announced the president and his aides began a national campaign to say that there was MAJOR FRAUD in the election and that Trump had won. The targeted areas for the FRAUD campaign were the geographical area that was populated by Blacks and people of color who voted for Biden. As of today, no one so far has seen hard evidence of this Fraud.
Many threats were made to legislators both at the state and national level and in Georgia to the office of the secretary of state. The President was asking for some 11,000 plus votes to be found and overturn the election results of Georgia. This insistence in the media by the president led to physical threats being made to officials in the Secretary of States’ office and their families. Finally, one official in that office said that the president should get these threats to stop before someone would be killed.
Then on January 6th a major rally was called and promoted by the president to protest what they called VOTER FRAUD. the message was that they needed to fight to give the election victory to Trump. Thousands came ready to do whatever was needed to stop the count of the electoral votes.
Listening to the speeches of January 6th you can see that the match was lit to those present which created a tsunami of hate that led to the death of five individuals, the sacking of the capital, and the intimidation of our elected officials. Meanwhile, the president and others were late to call off the madness that was tearing apart our democracy.
Later many Senators and Congressional persons still voted to overturn the delegate votes, even after all the violence.
As a result of this horrific violence, the House decided to impeach the president. We are told that some Republicans did not vote for impeachment because they were afraid of violence to their families… and on many levels, I can understand their fear of having had my life seriously threatened over the years.
MLK and all those great individuals of the Civil Rights movement lived every day with the fear of violence physical and economic. But this did not stop them, nor did it make them call for vengeance and retribution …Instead King reminded us that LOVE WAS STRONGER THAN HATE. and we must punch a hole in this dark cloud over America and let a little light shine in. So that we can have hope and make our world better.
While we ask for justice, we must also know that we must also not hate the individuals, but we must insist on a fair judicial process for all those who promote and do violence. And continue to show love for everyone.
Love opens the door to nonviolence and embracing nonviolence in 1970 changed my life and have since then I have been able to help others leave violence.
While we now have a vaccine for COVID-19 and for the other virus of racism/violence we also have a vaccine which is love.
