Enough!
Over the past few months, I’ve struggled to find words to express the sadness I feel for the present situation in America. I’ve mostly kept quiet, aside from conversations with friends and family. But: enough is enough. I refuse to watch veterans and unarmed women and girls be gassed and bullied by Federal thugs.
The disproportionate and militarized policing of minority communities is a topic of importance. But it is, sadly, nothing new. To say that Black Lives Matter is to recognize that the Police are not allowed to murder human beings with Black skin. But, freedom from being murdered is the least possible freedom that can be afforded to a human.
Over the last ten years, the US stock market has more than doubled in value while median working wages have remained stagnant. Cost of living has increased, and home ownership is at an all time low. The average American is saddled with debt from our broken education and medical systems.
The Federal Government has extended its campaign of disinformation into the political management of the Coronavirus. Instead of supporting our Health and Science professionals, the Government has interfered with our Health agencies, and silenced prominent Health experts. With the Coronavirus stimulus bill, we have seen yet another wholesale transfer of wealth to the nation’s wealthiest white families.
These realities do affect the Majority — working-class white folks. But, they disproportionately affect Black, Latino, and other minority communities. Communities that have not benefited from intergenerational wealth and opportunity transfer.
My own family came to the United States on the Mayflower in 1620. One grandfather fought for the US in WW-II, one worked as a Minister and protested the Vietnam War. The public school system in Boston instilled a sense of Patriotism in me — that, in my own community, people like me had successfully conquered the British Government to uphold the ideals of Freedom, Liberty, and Justice. But where are these ideals now, and who is upholding them?
The Trump Administration has launched a tyrannical assault on the US Constitution, and our Bill of Rights.
Through his campaign of misinformation he has sewn mistrust in our Press. He has suppressed the Free Speech of non-violent dissenters with armed Federal agents. He has imposed travel bans on our Muslim brothers and sisters who come here to work alongside us, on the basis of their religion.
He has quartered Federal agents in Portland against the will of that city’s population and government, in direct opposition to the letter and spirit of the Third Amendment. Similarly, Americans have been kidnapped in vans without due process, in stark violation of the Fourth Amendment.
Arguably the single amendment that has been best upheld is the Second. Trump’s bully pulpit has espoused an insurgence of far-right Proud Boys who now enter our cities threatening dissenters at gunpoint. Proud Boys have driven through crowds of people in wanton disregard and disrespect for human life, and seen little repercussion. An ever increasing blur between Proud Boys, local Police, and Federal Agents wreaks staunchly of last century’s Authoritarian regimes.
You may say, ‘No, this is only about rioters and “antifa”, not about free speech.’ Well? It isn’t. I have attended the protests in Downtown Portland. I am anti-Fascist, like my grandfather was in WW-II. I believe that Black Lives Matter. In Portland, Oregon, you will find others there, like me. We are non-violent, and we love America. America is my home, I have no other home. I’m not leaving.
I’m asking you to join me in denouncing Trump and the Federal Government. If you have children — can you explain to them that this okay? I bet you can’t. This is not what the servicemen and women in my family have fought for. This is not what I believe in. This is not America, and we will not accept this.
