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Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsAt this pivotal moment in history I am glad to see George Bush getting on the right side of it
Laura and I are anguished by the brutal suffocation of George Floyd and disturbed by the injustice and fear that suffocate our country. Yet we have resisted the urge to speak out, because this is not the time for us to lecture. It is time for us to listen. It is time for America to examine our tragic failures and as we do, we will also see some of our redeeming strengths.
It remains a shocking failure that many African Americans, especially young African American men, are harassed and threatened in their own country. It is a strength when protesters, protected by responsible law enforcement, march for a better future. This tragedy in a long series of similar tragedies raises a long overdue question: How do we end systemic racism in our society? The only way to see ourselves in a true light is to listen to the voices of so many who are hurting and grieving. Those who set out to silence those voices do not understand the meaning of America or how it becomes a better place.
Americas greatest challenge has long been to unite people of very different backgrounds into a single nation of justice and opportunity. The doctrine and habits of racial superiority, which once nearly split our country, still threaten our Union. The answers to American problems are found by living up to American ideals to the fundamental truth that all human beings are created equal and endowed by God with certain rights. We have often underestimated how radical that quest really is, and how our cherished principles challenge systems of intended or assumed injustice. The heroes of America from Frederick Douglass, to Harriet Tubman, to Abraham Lincoln, to Martin Luther King, Jr. are heroes of unity. Their calling has never been for the fainthearted. They often revealed the nations disturbing bigotry and exploitation stains on our character sometimes difficult for the American majority to examine. We can only see the reality of Americas need by seeing it through the eyes of the threatened, oppressed, and disenfranchised.
That is exactly where we now stand. Many doubt the justice of our country, and with good reason. Black people see the repeated violation of their rights without an urgent and adequate response from American institutions. We know that lasting justice will only come by peaceful means. Looting is not liberation, and destruction is not progress. But we also know that lasting peace in our communities requires truly equal justice. The rule of law ultimately depends on the fairness and legitimacy of the legal system. And achieving justice for all is the duty of all.
This will require a consistent, courageous, and creative effort. We serve our neighbors best when we try to understand their experience. We love our neighbors as ourselves when we treat them as equals, in both protection and compassion. There is a better way the way of empathy, and shared commitment, and bold action, and a peace rooted in justice. I am confident that together, Americans will choose the better way.
Blues Heron
(5,926 posts)wonder who wrote that for him
irisblue
(32,916 posts)msongs
(67,347 posts)llmart
(15,532 posts)that he fiddled around while they drowned in New Orleans from Hurricane Katrina.
He can try to rewrite his history all he wants, but this person isn't buying it.
NYC Liberal
(20,135 posts)llmart
(15,532 posts)how Babs went to Houston to inform the people huddled in a gymnasium that it was much better than their usual living spaces.
Fuck that whole family.
NYC Liberal
(20,135 posts)(And while we're on the subject: Cheney was on vacation in Jackson Hole, Condi was buying $3000 Ferragamo shoes in New York, and sexual predator Dennis Hastert refused to reconvene the House to vote on pass emergency funding.)
Varaddem
(431 posts)When the slaves came over in search of religious and economic freedom? How could he possibly know what inequality is? He thinks he pulled himself up by his own bootstraps .
NNadir
(33,456 posts)He comes from a party that has been running on racism since 1968. What we are seeing is the logical extension of his parties lifeblood, and the death blood of African Americans.
He didn't say a damned word about the current lack of leadership and his party's efforts to dismantle the US Constitution. Nothing.
customerserviceguy
(25,183 posts)"Eat us last."
Solly Mack
(90,758 posts)Just because it's shiny now doesn't change its smell.