AMERICA: I Can’t Breathe
The Racist Attack on Our Nation’s Capitol
As I watch the unimaginable scenes from our nation’s capital, where our entire Congress was held hostage by the actions of a deluded and deranged mob, I NOTICED A LOT OF US AND I are filled with anger.
Righteous anger. Because while what we were watching was horrifying, it is not surprising. The clarion cry of one George Floyd was “I Can’t Breathe.” God was not pleased then
Now those in authority that did not hear him may hear him now at the expense of those who may have heard him yet were silent. To have somebody with their knee on your neck but in this case you run for your life from Molotov cocktail and guns and you are being stormed and forced to hide under desk causes you not to breathe.,..
This is the inevitable result of:
- Four years of lies from President Donald Trump. Now you can’t breathe America. Yet God is not pleased
- Four years of the president demonizing his opponents. Now you can’t breathe America. Yet God is not pleased
- Four years of unaccountable abuses of power. Now you can’t breathe America. Yet God is not pleased
- Four years of reckless rhetoric and thinly veiled threats of violence. Now you can’t breathe America. Yet God is not pleased
- Four years of stoking of white racial resentment, anxiety and fear. Now you can’t breathe America. Yet God is not pleased
Of naked appeals to his thugs and inciting Proud Boy gangs to “stand by.” Now you can’t breathe America & God is not Pleased
And of repeated refusals on his part to promise a peaceful transfer of power. Now you can’t breathe America & God is not Pleased
Make no mistake, this is the only place that the presidency of Donald Trump could lead: a violent assault upon the nation’s democracy. Donald Trump has always been for Donald Trump and NO ONE ELSE & God is not Pleased
What we saw Wednesday is a clear declaration that many white people would rather live in a white dictatorship than in a multiracial democracy.
We cannot seem surprise, because for years, the core of Mr. Trump’s appeal has been stoking white resentment at the changing face of America. What we saw Wednesday is a clear declaration that many white people would rather live in a white dictatorship than in a multiracial democracy. If democracy means sharing power with people of color, especially Black people, then they want no part of it. Wednesday is the inevitable consequence of the nation’s tolerance of white racism.
But Trump is not solely responsible for this debacle. Here is where the wisdom of the Catholic moral tradition is achingly relevant. Thomas Aquinas teaches that one shares in the evil of another “by omitting the counsel that would have hindered the wrongdoing” and by “silence, by not preventing, by not denouncing.”
After the storming of the Capitol: We need
What we witnessed in Washington is a direct consequence of four years of enabling
- complicity, being involved with others in an illegal activity or wrongdoing
- cynical appeasement believing that people are motivated by self-interest; distrustful of human sincerity or integrity. Just giving people what they want to prevent them from harming you or being angry with you
synonyms:
bitter · resentful · soured · distorted · disenchanted · disillusioned · disappointed · pessimistic · skeptical · distrustful · suspicious · misanthropic · jealous · envious · narrow-minded · bigoted · prejudiced · intolerant · discriminatory.
- cowardly silence.
It is the consequence of those who knew that the president is grossly incompetent for the office, but said nothing. It is the result of those who repeated his lies about a stolen election to curry short-term favor. It is the consequence of political leaders who refused to confront his unprecedented destruction of democratic norms out of fear of a presidential tweet.
It is also the consequence of the complicit silence and active support of religious leaders who refused to confront the cancer of white nationalism that this president endorses and who excused all manner of his wrongdoing, incompetence and brutality by saying these were not the “pre-eminent evil”
It is a direct consequence of four years of enabling complicity, cynical appeasement and cowardly silence.
, “Truth is the mother, basis, and foundation of justice.” What we saw Wednesday is the consequence when truth is ignored, trampled and dismissed. And when lies are repeated, winked at or cynically embraced. We cannot have justice when charade passes for reality, when racist delusion is passed by in silence, when political cynicism passes for public service.
The fundamental question confronting the nation is: Will we strive to be a nation of liberty and justice for all? Or only for some? For those who are white and angry? For those who look like and pray like us? Until we face those questions, we dare not act surprised by the horror that we saw at the Capitol today. Or when it happens again.
- Can you claim to walk in His calling even if you’re surrounded by chaos? Hear me good: You cannot claim God’s calling without committing to His change!
- In all my life, I’ve never seen a time like this. But, that also means that I’ll get to see God work in a way I’ve never seen Him work before!
- God gave you the fortitude to handle whatever 2021 throws at you! Did you give Him your faith?
