From Martin Luther King Jr., history has laid down the gauntlet, and we must choose which road to take and how to work together for our country, our citizens, and yes, our democracy.
America will be tested in this most interesting time in our history. And we must be prepared for all the madness that comes with this tsunami of change. We must also be careful of the bright lights that could blind us to the truth.
On the one hand, today, we have a strong minority of supposed Christians who want to hit us over the head with the Ten Commandments, pushing them into our schools and trying to rewrite the Constitution in their version of Christianity.
At the same time, they are not questioning those who have broken these commandments and, worse yet, worshipping an individual who claims to be a practicing Christian but has, in reality, broken many of those commandments.
This is a serious contradiction that we must confront. If we are forced to have these commandments in our schools, then we might want to tell students and parents which of our local, state and national leaders have violated these oaths.
Hypocrisy is often present in elections, but this year there seems to be a wild herd of it running out of control in our country.
A few days ago, the sitting president said mid-stream that he is not running for president, and we are all now examining our options to figure out what to do in the days ahead.
History has a strange way of helping us document moments when men and women fall under the spell of a madman or woman, allowing their cultism to shred away any semblance of our real morality. Today, the most difficult task for many seems to be stopping the loud and repetitive lying. Everyone should be standing up for something called the truth and quit hiding behind these false prophets.
Those of you who are real Christians, Muslims, Jews, Buddhists, or follow any other religion or spiritual practices like those of our indigenous peoples, must be sick to your stomachs to hear that this is a Christian nation. I always thought that my America was a home for everyone, even if they had no so-called religion.
Some on the political right are threatening revenge and violence on a national level if they do not win.
When you create an atmosphere of violence, you open the door to anyone and everyone who might seek vengeance. Those who have seen the casualties of war know that the victims are often the innocent, and the damaged are the combatants, not the generals leading us to fight. Winning a battle or a war does not make you right or correct. I am worried that the hot and racist rhetoric fueling hatred in some camps will spill over into the streets and damage us all.
We must be wary of the merchants of hate who profit off the demonization of defenseless groups of people.
If we don’t turn down the heat of language and actions, our societal so-called melting pot will boil over and scar us all forever.
While our democracy is not perfect, it still must be preserved and improved at this point in history.
Like MLK, I don’t know what will happen now. I don’t know how much damage and pain our country will or can endure before we decide that the value of true democracy is more important than our personal advancements. I want everyone to be safe and have a chance to vote, to choose candidates in a fair and decent process. While I would like my candidates to win, more importantly, I want to participate in an open and fair political and social process.
Today, some in our country hold up hooligans and their violent and racist elements as signs of patriotism. To me, they are traitors who tried to tear apart the fabric of America, and they should be treated as enemies of the state. There is a blueprint developed by an extreme right-wing cabal called PROJECT 2025 that is a roadmap of exclusion, i.e., a dictatorship that excludes due process and rejects civil and human rights.
The authors and supporters of this document must be challenged at every opportunity. Today, silence is not an option.
I cannot predict what any group or individual will do during this difficult time. But I can suggest that I will try to do everything in my power to not only preserve our democracy but also work hard to make freedom and justice ring for everyone.
Ours is an imperfect government that needs activists of all stripes of goodwill to make it work for everyone.
