by Willie Williams
We the people.
Powerful opening words to the Constitution. It affirms that the government of the United States exists to serve its citizens. It guarantees fundamental rights.
In 1787, all people couldn’t vote. Americans of African descent were considered 3/5 of a human. Therefore, they could be owned, like livestock.
Women couldn’t vote, nor could they own property.
The Constitution wasn’t talking about us. It was doing what it was designed to do: protect white men who had power. The Supreme Court upheld that argument.
This country committed atrocities and documented them against its citizens. The Native Americans faced genocide (the long Navajo walk) and had their lands taken. The Declaration of Independence referred to them as merciless Indian savages.
African-Americans were enslaved, faced massacres (Tulsa), endured the KKK and segregation, were denied medical care and legal representation, couldn’t get loan rates the same as white Americans, and were unknowingly involved in a syphilis experiment at Tuskegee.
Asian-Americans were sent to internment camps, and they endured violent suppression of labor and other domestic atrocities.
We are shocked when arguments go before the Supreme court and the ruling is in favor of powerful white men. In our current political climate, the Court is saying it’s okay to racially profile, directly contradicting the 14th Amendment.
Yet, this is the country that we love.
Thank you, Black America, for your contributions in technology and inventions in science and medicine, economics and labor, culture and the arts, civil rights and politics.
Thank you, Asian Americans, for your contributions to economic and infrastructure development, STEM and health care, architecture and design, and your culture and military service.
Thank you, Navajo code talkers. You contributed significantly to the Allied victories, especially in the Pacific theatre.
When you have an unbiased, honest conversation, you will get an unbiased answer.
We can’t continue on this path of destruction. The moral depravity of this administration is without equal. They create an emergency and in the ninth hour, come to the rescue of the emergency of their own making.
They create the illusion that they are problem solvers. That’s not governance.
If this country continues to listen to a leader who’s homophobic, racist, and divisive, the chains of oppression will never be broken. They justify violence by distorting facts and gaslighting the public into doubt.
Obscuring the truth when it threatens power is not new. Progress has never been linear. We should not only witness what’s happening, but we should also turn our outrage into participation.
The March on Washington would never have taken place if we had watched from a distance. Selma to Montgomery, voters’ rights, and emancipation happened because someone had the courage to stand up and say, that’s enough.
What makes America great is our commonality and engaging with one another. Not our differences. The first step in reconciliation is admission.
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