Lest We Forget

Irrational race hatred and violence is nothing new. But something IS different this time.

If you are young enough or haven’t followed history, you may not know the names Andrew Goodman, Michael Schwerner and James Cheney. They were three idealistic college students, two of them white, one Black, who went to Mississippi in 1964 to try and register African-Americans to vote. They were kidnapped and brutally murdered by Ku Klux Klan members and local law enforcement, which is largely redundant.

Andrew Cheney, the African-American, was reportedly also tortured and castrated. When the FBI began looking for their bodies, they first found several other young Black men who had also been murdered for the crime of trying to help people vote.

There has, of course, also been lots of immigrant hatred in the United States of America since, well, before we became a country. There’s a big difference, though.

In 1964 our president, Lyndon Johnson, vigorously condemned the hatred and violence and fought against it. Other presidents of both parties at least paid lip service to opposing racism and violence.

Donald Trump stirs it up, causes it, and essentially and almost openly condones it.

We can overcome this, if we want to. There are also many good people and heroes among us. But the elected leader of our country is, sorry to say, largely evil.

No, that’s not too strong a statement. Think January 6, 2021. LBJ electrified the nation when he adopted the slogan of the civil rights movement and declared, “we shall overcome.”

We largely did then. We still can now. It will be harder than it was. But we have no choice. We can’t look away, and as much as I wish we could, we can’t hide in our lives.

We have to stand firm that this will not stand, that we will put an end to this, and if we are brave enough and work hard enough, we will.