–Against incendiary disinformation, conspiracy theories, and character assassination.
The most dangerous of the growing American disinformation business tells us not to trust our elections. We could be on the road to losing our democracy, and moving into repeating the chaos and destruction of the race riots of the 60’s.
I was there then, immersed in our civil rights revolution voter rights drives in the south. I was too young a college student to grasp the impact of the death and destruction I saw then.
I met pastors in tears sorting through the ashes of burned church buildings, in Black and Choctaw communities. I saw the gaping hole in a pond dam along a lonely piney woods road between Philadelphia and Meridian, Mississippi. That’s where three bodies were excavated a week earlier, when I passed by in 1965.
Shortly before that, I was with a young man at his college dorm over spring break, the first black student allowed at Mississippi State University. He was still grieved with the loss of his brother, one of three demonstrators tortured, murdered and buried by a bulldozer in that dam.
One early December morning before then, in Canton, Mississippi, I parked my ’51 Studebaker convertible in front of the only open eatery I could find after driving all night. I ordered my egg sandwich at the bar and was going to eat it there. The only other patrons were three middle age men at a table in the Northeast corner.
I didn’t know why they glared at me. Much later I realized they likely saw my Iowa plates. “What the h--- are you doing here, Yankee boy?” The fat grey-haired one got my attention.
“I’m hungry, looks like the only place open.”
“Where do you think you goin?”
“Visit my girlfriend’s family for Christmas, at Gulfport.”
“We don’t want Yankee n____ lovers helping Martin Lucifer Coon stir up our n____s here. You wouldn’t happen to know him?”
“No, I never heard the name.”
“Some folks call him ‘Dr. Martin Luther King.”
“O yeah, he does demonstrations, right?” I answered, and then he responded with a volley of anti-Communist and anti-demonstrator rants unwritable.
I grunted a thanks for the education, wrapped my sandwich in a paper napkin, paid my bill, grabbed my coffee in a paper cup to go, and headed for the door. Their last words were scant comfort,
“You’ll be OK if you don’t git mixed up with our n___’s, …and stay away from that ‘coon fella! Have a good trip.”
I tried not to run to my car, closed the door and headed out, With one hand on the wheel and the other with my sandwich and coffee, I kept looking for that white rusty pickup I parked beside, the only vehicle there when I arrived. My coffee spilled. Gradually, I quit looking in my rear view mirror and finished my egg sandwich, and tried to think clearly.
Hours later, arriving in Gulfport, I was fortunate to have time for reflection with my family-to-be there.
I still remember pondering this with them, after my first serious white supremacy encounter. They had decades of experience with this. How could human beings come to believe any group of human beings is any less than fully human, any less worthy of respect by others?
Start toward the answer: they didn’t
choose that belief. It comes from kings, and the way kings get their subjects' loyalty, and willingness to shed blood to defend their king.
Our nation’s founders did not want a king. They choose the ballot over the bullet, a spiritual war over a war of flesh and blood. The result has been elections for a president, and more recently a presidential term limit. We now have safeguards to make sure our president does not aspire to kingly power. Until recently, the whole world looked up to our election system with its protections against abuse and fraud. Here’s some facts:
1. Most nations of the world have shown their respect for our tradition by quickly endorsing Biden’s election.
2. Our current lame-duck president, using language I heard from white supremacists in the 60’s opposing black voter rights, repeated offensive language with claims our election for Joe Biden was “rigged, fake and wrong.”
3. Last week our free press, another long-time credible institution of our nation, reported that 60% of all Republicans believe our lame-duck president: the election was falsely won by Joe Biden, and should be overturned.
4. Even the mismatched signature controversy in black majority counties in Georgia, leading to talk of throwing out an entire black-majority county's ballots–voter suppression itself, can come nowhere near overturning the strong results currently electing Joe Biden as our president.
We need a caution: Our lame-duck president is not alone a major threat to our democracy and strength as a nation. Nor are our many friends who in fear of law and order breakdown are arming themselves to protect their families. The most danger comes from leaders who have gained enormous trust of one side, and hatred of the other. We are in danger because almost none of our national leaders are respected by both sides. It’s almost impossible to find them on TV or internet.
But they are with us, yes! They are here in our own towns and countryside. These are the ones who, with skillful listening to both sides, use respectful language to probe into a better understanding of the root of our prevailing fears. Our popular pundits, politicians, and preachers on the media do not hear them. They have the power here in our towns and countryside because they have respect across our crazy polarity. We need their words now, to help unmask the beautiful truth under horrific portrayals cast against our American armed militia members, American Muslims, American white supremacists, racists, Chinese, Black activists, etc. etc. These leaders are the ones with power to empower troubled people with words respectful of real people on both sides of this irrational polarity.
In this process lies the true strength of our nation. This is our truly American culture of democratic and Christian strength. Grasp it to listen and understand the other side, and build respect. This is the core defense against the current lurch toward civil unrest, disrespect, or even widespread breakdown of law and order.
It happened in the 60’s death, destruction, and breakdown of law and order. We as a nation just didn’t keep on keeping on then. Eighty years later we again have a beautiful challenge: pursue our God-given destiny as members of the human race, “one nation, under God, with liberty and justice for all.”
Lets keep on keeping on FTFT:
IN OUR many wars after our revolution, we have been on an unwitting trek to understanding that humans over other humans is not only against God and the Bible, it’s against the very fabric of human love and relationship God intended from creation. The nationwide angry polarity in health and politics needs us all to quiet down and listen. Only with patience can a few of our politicians and preachers come out from behind the Bible and God and speak the truth of the lies of supremacy plaguing our nation. There is truth. It's here in our towns and countryside. Some of our religious and political leaders here are finding the courage to speak it. It’s a good time to do so. The latest loud lie is apparently (the news says so) believed by some 70% of Republicans (all over the news) came out this past weekend: “The election was rigged, and false. I am still president.”
Unfortunately, our supremacy cults have renewed energy, and many more adherents among our citizenry. In spite of obscene language and aggressive threats couched in supremacy humor, these people are to be respected. That doesn’t mean we should respect the slogans and ideas of supremacy hiding as the invisible elephant in the joined rooms of our pandemic and our violent protests. We need to name the incitement of citizen against citizen, pro-lifers against abortionists, socialists vs patriot militias, as unpatriotic, unchristian, idiotic behavior. We need to remove the misuse of our Bible, our God, slogans like pro-life, anti-socialist, and family values to see the vile truth behind the propagation of these words. Those wanting a fight to the death over supremacy, using these good terms falsely with evil intent, have wreaked enough destruction on our nation’s families and homes over the past centuries. We can, as a nation, be led away from what appears to be looming as another historical fight to the death weakening our nation and our families’ ability to thrive.
We can agree truth can stop our drift toward polarization leading to violence gain. Of course, we Christians all believe Jesus is the Truth. His Truth must mean that respectful words, humble acts and real evidence are also sacred. Jesus had courage to stack his disciple band with both sides. He and St. Paul both attacked their politicians’ ideas about truth being relative, and opposed the violence of both sides in the Jewish wars of the first centuries. That’s when both sides joined in his execution (See the Bible, the four Gospels).The truth of what really happened to Jesus in his polarized worlds is now impinging on us again.
We need pastors and leaders to direct us toward the truth Jesus taught. Our pandemic and our systemic racism can only be healed as folks with power (religious, political and business leaders), do three things:
1) stop hiding evidence,
2) stop pretending there is equal truth to every side of the many disinformation and conspiracy theory voices sowing hatred for real groups of human beings.
3) Stop joining the crowds now rushing to buy guns for fear of demonstrators and/or for fear of white supremacists.
As in the 60’s, and farther back in the 1780’s, there were both white and black people afraid of people with guns. From the 60’s to now the polarized worlds of demonstrators and that of right wing militants are priming for an escalation in violence in America. In 1780’s it was black slaves getting guns to rebel against rape and breakup of slave families in their homes. We today forgot that the primary reason for the 2nd amendment’s ratification was to protect white families against slave rebellion in Virginia (Carl Bogus, U.C. Davis Law Review 309 1998). That protection took the form of independent “well organized militias,” organized for the specified purpose of quelling slave rebellions. On one side, white supremacists feared abolitionist federalists, who could send the federal army into the south to disarm the militias. On the other were mothers and fathers who wanted to protect their families from kidnap, rape, and slave trafficking. Both sides got guns, and our 2nd amendment’s ratification arguably extended the carnage of polarized separate worlds from then into the civil war a hundred years later. Will we repeat our history again?
For us now, the right wing is responsible for highest spike in gun purchasing our nation has known, over a million last April. Recently the left is beginning to buy up guns and ammo too (see Politico, October 25). The new news is it’s just about as many Democrats as Republicans buying guns. How will we avoid a civil war?
Our religious leaders would do well to follow folks like Bonhoeffer in Germany during the holocaust. Make room by ending right wing Christian media preachers, politicians and pundits with alternative theology fanning flames of fear and hatred against Muslims, Democrats, Planned Parenthood and Black lives matter extremists.
People right here in our towns have the courage to speak truth instead of remaining silent. Our folks know truth: it’s patriotic to trust our election system, proven again this November to be the best in the world. We have pride rights to our American Democracy. It’s also patriotic to trust our oldest, most respected media resources and tradition of journalism, especially when not loyal to powerful politicians. We must use that trust, or we will lose it. It takes our respected truth-tellers here in Big Horn County to come out of silence.
It’s a dangerous time for us to forget or ignore our
history. Like then, we need Jesus now. His way is that eternal flame of truth that gets tiny, even goes underground, but is always available with persistent constant respect for others of our species' rights to exist and to be free.
