Tag: Nationalism

celebrating July 4th on the Eve of America’s Fall

It feels like one of the greatest ironies of all time that this country will celebrate its independence from English monarchical rule as its leaders continue their intent to replace this democracy with autocracy.

It is hard to accept what is going on. It feels like anarchy, as the president and his hand-picked cabinet and government officials blatantly disregard and ignore the “rule of law” in their pursuit of total control. The checks and balances system, put in place by the Founding Fathers, is either non-existent or non-operative, and too many Americans seem either oblivious or purposely ignorant of the implications of what is happening and how it will affect them and many generations to come.

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Where are the Americans, the people who actually do love this country and who are willing to put allegiance to it in front of a desire to be loyal to the man who is leading the effort to destroy it?

It is the height of hypocrisy to listen to the MAGA/GOP members talk about their love of country and that this is a country of laws, as they simultaneously ignore or have stated that they intend to ignore rulings of the courts that threaten their agenda. (https://www.politico.com/news/magazine/2025/02/11/jd-vance-trump-executive-power-supreme-court-00203537) (https://www.politico.com/news/magazine/2025/01/28/trump-tiktok-bailout-00200800).

In Project Esther, the document prepared by the Heritage Foundation, the writers continue to talk about law and order and how what they plan to do to fight antisemitism is nothing less than clear evidence that they love this country. “This is a nation of laws,” the document says, and while it defines antisemitism as that which is evident by people who protest in this country against the actions of the Israeli government and the resultant massacre of innocent Gazans, they are strangely quiet about the antisemitism that has been practiced historically in this country. The document makes no mention of the attacks on Jews that have included the bombing of their synagogues and the constant denigration of Jews by Americans who simultaneously reveal a love and respect for Adolf Hitler.

Long before the October 2024 attack on Jews in Israel by Hamas, American antisemitism was felt deeply by Jews in this country. (https://www.npr.org/2024/02/13/1230928104/large-majorities-americans-antisemitism-serious-problem-ajc), but Project Esther uses as the reason for its creation only to the October 7 attack.

Law and order do not exist in this country; “due process” has never existed for African Americans in this country but the lack of due process is now being felt by immigrants in this country as masked “ICE” agents have been given the freedom to kidnap people of color for no reason – off public streets, out of their homes, and off their jobs to deport them.

https://www.youtube-nocookie.com/embed/BwXdna3iA7o?rel=0&autoplay=0&showinfo=0&enablejsapi=0

) (https://calmatters.org/justice/2025/07/la-immigration-raids-lawsuit/) What we are seeing feels like accounts of how Africans -some enslaved and some free- were kidnapped at gunpoint by civilians deputized to capture them. The “crime” of the yet enslaved Africans was fleeing plantations in their quest for freedom, but others committed no crime but were hunted and arrested as well. (https://www.tpusa.com/live/princeton-professor-compares-ice-agents-to-slave-catchers) (https://www.freep.com/story/opinion/2019/10/01/ice-immigration-agents-slave-catchers/3824310002/).

Immigrants, naturalized and undocumented, are living in fear, many staying home from work and school because they don’t want to be kidnapped, and yet the people in the highest levels of government are doing nothing. It feels like we are seeing the 21st-century version of the heinous practices allowed by the Fugitive Slave Laws of the 19thcentury.

Our freedoms are being challenged, including freedom of speech, assembly, the press, religion, and the right to petition the government. Those who say they love America are either quiet or are boisterously working to destroy the government, MAGA called “the deep state.” These people are angry and feel like they have been unheard and disrespected. With their president in the White House, they are seeking power with a vengeance, and it does not appear that they care who will suffer and perhaps die because of the policies that are being put into place.

As the House wrangles with a final version of the Trump “Big Beautiful Bill,” those lawmakers who admit that the bill is bad and will cause many people a lot of pain are caving. The country whose birth came about as a result of it defeating an autocratic government, led by a king, is working with all deliberate speed to make sure the man they elected will stay in power and continue the transformation of this country from democracy to an aristocracy, powered by oligarchs whose only goal is to make money off the backs of the people whose hard work produced the funds that propelled them to wealth.

The Fourth of July was never one where I consciously thought about how America became independent; when we gathered as a family on this holiday, we would often make mention that even though Black people had never enjoyed full American citizenship, we never gave up the fight. With the passage of the Civil Rights and Voting Rights laws in the mid 60s, we felt we were a little closer.

But whatever ground we made is being chopped up, and not just for African Americans but for a whole group of people who wealthy white men believe do not deserve full American citizenship.

So, forgive me if I am confused about what the fireworks that are about to be launched over the next couple of days really mean. American bigotry, hatred, and ignorance are exhausting, but that portion of Americanism is here to stay and will continue to wrest the concepts of “liberty and justice” away from people as it always has. We are celebrating freedom and liberty on the eve of America’s fall.

A candid observation.

God help us all.

The Difficulty of Facing the Truth

            I read a statement given by a white pastor after the murder of George Floyd. He said, “We understand the curse that was slavery but we miss the blessing of slavery, that it actually built up the framework for the world that white people live in and lived in.”(Italics mine)

            That phrase, “We miss the blessing of slavery” made my face grow hot. How dare anyone say that at any time, but especially after the brutal murder of George Floyd. How could anyone be so insensitive?

But after I calmed down, I realized that, regardless of how that statement hit, it was the truth. The enslavement of Black people made this country, and the misery and deficiency of Black people simultaneously was a blessing for white people, creating for them a sense of entitlement and sufficiency.

The truth hurts. We are living in a painful and scary time. People are losing their jobs and health care; people in power are running roughshod over and through this country like bulls in a china shop, and too many people are cowering in fear, saying nothing. Some people are refusing to see what they are seeing, and too many people are still saying that “it’s not so bad.”

            But it is, and it promises to get worse. The truth is this “democracy” is under attack. The coup that the current president began in 2016 and pushed during his presidency and the presidency of President Biden, is in full swing. We are seeing happen what Nikita Khrushchev said years ago: “We will overtake America without firing a single shot.” The goal of what is going on is to replace one “deep state” with another, the new one unconcerned about the lives of the masses. We are speeding downhill and there is nobody to help us or save us. Journalists who speak up are being fired, and people are being put in place who will teach the perspective of the oppressors. It has only been two months, and already, much of what constituted the infrastructure of this country has been either destroyed or badly damaged.

            That is the truth, whether or not people want to believe it. People who thought they would be “safe” under this president are finding out that they have been hoodwinked and they are scared and mad – just like those who had the sense to believe that the goal to destroy this country was real.

            The truth is hard to see, hard to swallow, and accept. We prefer to stay under the warm blankets of deceit. When we are in that place, we can and do pull the blankets over our eyes when something is going on that is too difficult to see and scary to accept. But times come when the blankets of protection are taken from us, and what we are left with is the raw truth staring us in the face.

            What we do with the truth matters. The truth is that we live in a system that wants the masses to cower to the wealthy. If we see it and pretend it doesn’t really exist, we commit our souls to a slow disintegration. We lose. Denying the truth gives it power. It laughs at us as it continues to stomp on all that we have believed. When we cannot or will not see the truth, it takes control, until one day, it wins. We think and act like the oppressors want us to. 

            But when we see the truth and confront it, we begin to dilute its power. The deception inherent in what passes off as truth is weak. Deception does not like to be confronted and challenged but when it is, it begins to disintegrate. Many people in this country have refused to see racism and white supremacy for what they are and what they do and have done. Some people have believed that if they did all they could to “act white,” or “look white,” they would, in fact, be accepted as white, but they learn that life in a racist world does not work like that. 

            But throughout history, when those who are being manipulated to think the way the oppressors want them to think decide that they will not do that, the landscape changes. That we dare confront raw power is in itself unnerving. Confronting and challenging the truth takes away fear and intimidation. We are able to make bold statements publicly and stand on them, like the late Archbishop Desmond Tutu, who said to leaders in South Africa as he confronted apartheid,  “God is not a Christian!” Confronting the truth gives us the will and the way to seek release from its grip. It is not much different than acknowledging that we don’t feel well and, after a while, deciding to see what’s wrong. We risk hurting to become well. Illness hides and rests in our capacity to deny its presence, but when we decide to get up and be aggressive about finding out what is wrong, illness, no matter how severe, stands much less likely to take us out or cause extreme pain and suffering while we are alive.

            As we see people being punished for facing evil in the face, may we pray for the courage to first, see what is happening and then have enough faith in God and belief in the need for justice for all people, to stand up, face it, and push it to lose its potency. We are not powerless, but our courage will manifest when we stop denying that what is happening is happening and in response, do as stated in Galatians, “Stand fast in the liberty wherewith Christ has set us free and be not entangled again with the yoke of bondage.”

A candid observation …