"JUNETEENTH AND THE MEANING OF AMERICA"

 “JUNETEENTH AND THE MEANING OF AMERICA”

Juneteenth begins a two week period in our history when we can now consider two powerful forces in America:  the idea of equality, and the idea of slavery/white supremacy.  These two ideas are not compatible with one another, but they continue to co-exist in the history of the USA.  The tradition is that Frederick Douglass never spoke about equality and justice on July 4, because he saw July 4 celebrations as a mockery as long as people were enslaved in America.  In his famous and powerful speech about Independence Day in 1852 in Rochester, he said these words:  “What, to the American slave, is your Fourth of July? I answer:  a day that reveals to {him}, more than all other days in the year, the gross injustice and cruelty to which {he} is the constant victim.”

Douglass finds the essence of the struggle in the tension between the idea of equality and the idea of slavery/white supremacy.  How can we celebrate the idea of equality while still holding onto the idea of white supremacy?  Douglass and others knew well how those of us classified as “white”  do it:  we deepen and refine the idea of race and racism.  How could we believe in equality and still hold people in enslavement?  We developed the idea of “white supremacy,” the idea that people of color, and especially those classified as “Black,” were not full human beings in the same way that those classified as “white” were.  The idea of equality, then, does not apply to those classified as “non-white.”  Jefferson and most of the other “founding” fathers did not believe that those classified as “Black” and “Native Americans” were equal human beings.  It was this belief that led them to hold human beings as slaves and to kill and remove Indigenous people from their lands.

After the Civil War, this idea was revived and deepened even further in order to repudiate the outcome of the Civil War (and to deny the value of the 700,000+ lives lost in that War) and in order to re-establish “slavery by another name,” to use Doug Blackmon’s powerful phrase.  This idea of white supremacy retains its power today, as we have seen in the rise of the Party of Trump, dedicated to the idea that white males should be in charge of everything, not because we are greedy and insecure, but because God and nature made us that way.  Those of us classified as “white” are watching the demographics, and we are aware that the time of plurality is not far away in the future, the time when there will be no majority racial classification in USA.  We are willing to support a despot like Trump because he is telling us what we want to hear:  those classified as “white” should always be in charge, especially white males.  This fear of the demographics is driving the Big Lie of the stolen 2020 election, voter suppression acts, censorship on “critical race theory,” anti-immigrant work, and the soon-to-be evisceration of Roe v. Wade.

We have had several tipping points in our history in this struggle between equality and white supremacy.  We saw it in the rise of the abolitionist movement in the 1840’s, in the tumultuous decade of the 1850’s that led to the Civil War.  We saw it in Reconstruction when the idea of equality seemed to be gaining strength.  We saw it in the development of the counter-revolution which pushed the Big Lie of the “Lost Cause,” an idea that pummeled the idea of equality.  We saw it in the 1890’s, when political power combined with violence to re-establish the priority of white supremacy.  We saw it in the 1940’s and 1950’s, when Black veterans returning from World War II were determined not to go back to neo-slavery.  We saw it in the 1960’s, as equality once again gained strength, and slavery was finally ended in 1965 with the passage of the Voting Rights Act.

Juneteenth acts as a counterpoint to the strong tendency towards white supremacy in our history.  It reminds us all of the power of the idea of equality, an idea that is rooted in struggle.  Even so with Juneteenth, now a federal holiday that reminds us that it took over two years for the news of freedom to reach those held in slavery in Texas.  

Since the Supreme Court hollowed out that Voting Rights Act in in its Shelby v. Holder decision in 2013, we are once again back in that same struggle between equality and white supremacy.  The idea of equality is powerful - many different groups - who were intended to be subservient by the system of race developed in USA – have heard and believed that the idea of equality applied to them also.  We are now at that tipping point again in the struggle between equality and white supremacy.  As we celebrate both Juneteenth and July 4, let us remember the tension between them.  Indeed, in the years to come, let us set aside the two weeks between these two national holidays to be in dialogue on the struggle between these two powerful ideas in American history.  May the profound vision of equality – a vision so frightening that its very authors immediately repudiated it in American history – may this vision go to our own core as individuals and as a nation, and may we live out its creed for all of us.

"CIVIL WAR - WILDCAT GROWL"

“CIVIL WAR – WILDCAT GROWL” 

“All along the watchtower

Princes kept the view

While all the women came and went

Barefoot servants, too

While, outside in the cold distance

A wildcat did growl

Two riders were approaching

And the wind began to howl”

Bob Dylan wrote this song in 1966, and then Jimi Hendrix took it over, but I still like Dylan’s version.  It seems appropriate for the times in which we live – the wildcat is growling and the wind is howling.

I had intended to pause the series on the possibility of a modern civil war, but provocative comments in response to the series and the opening of the January 6 Congressional hearings have compelled me to continue it for this week.  The hearings are revealing a concerted right wing effort to take over the government by throwing out the results of the 2020 presidential election and installing Donald Trump as president in 2021 and perhaps for life.  With President Biden’s ratings dropping and dropping, it is not hard to envision a scenario with the Trump Republicans winning both the House and the Senate in this fall’s elections. Then Trump would run again for President in 2024 and in winning, would give the right wing complete control of the mechanism of the federal government.  Whether Trump runs again or not in 2024, the autocracy of Trumpism is now central to the Republican party, and whoever wins the Republican nomination will be steeped in it, and will, I think, be favored to win in 2024.

Here are some powerful comments from our friend and colleague, the Rev. Dr. Greta Reed, now retired in Florida.  These are from an email exchange in regard to my two previous blogs on Civil War.

“I actually agree with you that the most likely scenario is to take over the government (by creating chaos at voting places, tilting the election, etc.)

But if THIS were to lead to many people like us taking to the streets, we would be met (I'm afraid) with violence not only of police and National Guard, but quite possibly by these armed right wing extremists.  It's a profoundly sad time--a national psychosis, sustained by silos of misinformation and deliberate manipulation.

    So interesting (if sad and horrifying both) to hear the hard-line Republicans placing their Second Amendment rights over the lives of children. (I would think parents have some rights regarding the protection of their children from wanton violence.) But more than that, the complete lack of empathy. but that's what extremism does: we develop a religious belief in our orthodoxy (e.g., the principle that no one can interfere with my right to bear arms) and nothing else matters. This is Putin's orthodoxy in invading Ukraine: some 18th or 19th century Romanticism about Mother Russia, "justifying" his violence in destroying every living thing in Ukraine in order to take it over.”

Greta makes a compelling case for what the future may hold for all of us in this country.  She also emphasized in other comments that any future civil war will be not be so much geographical as it will be spiritual and psychological.  In other words, the coming conflict will not be between the South and the North but between political factions, with urban areas being the most divided.  As in “Parable of the Sower,” the violence will grow in all areas, and in response the federal government (driven by autocratic Republicans) will crush dissent and establish a repressive order, reminiscent of Gilead in “The Handmaid’s Tale.”

This is grim stuff, and while I have often entertained this possibility in my mind, for the first time in my life, I can feel it in my gut.  Something’s coming, and unlike the wind of Mary Poppins, this is a wildcat growl, and seems to be a distinct possibility in my lifetime, just like our having reached the tipping point in climate change. But, as with climate change, there are things that we can do to mitigate the coming storms.  

As I have indicated before, voting in this year’s primaries and elections is essential.  There is no way around this.  Although there have been plenty of laws passed to repress the vote already, there is still some possibility of stopping even more repression by voting in the 2022 elections.  If moderates and progressives lose in this year and in 2024, these may be the last legitimate elections for the foreseeable future.  So, do this – register yourself to vote, and find at least 10 other people who are not registered to vote, and get them to register.  

The sinister winds are strong, however, so we must all find other places to be active for justice and for equity.  Organizing, showing up at council and commission meetings, protesting in the streets, contacting legislators – all of these and more are necessities at this point, if we are to avoid the autocracy that seems to be coming.  The wildcat is growling, and the wind is howling.

 

'CIVIL WAR - PART TWO"

“CIVIL WAR – PART TWO”

I’ve gotten a lot of good and provocative responses to last week’s blog on the possibility of another civil war in America.  The violence has only increased since then, so I’m wondering, wondering, wondering.  The first thought is that these next six months will tell us a lot about our future.  Will the Trumpist Republicans allow significant gun law reform?  The assault weapons ban was lifted during the George W. Bush presidency, and it has been mayhem ever since.  I am not hopeful that the Republicans will do anything significant – they might make the sale of body armor illegal to civilians, or they may allow a limit on the number of bullets available in a clip, but I do not see them going any further, if indeed they go that far.

Such action or inaction will be the first marker of the future.  To continue to allow assault weapons in the hands of civilians will proclaim the willingness and the desire to allow civilians to wreak havoc on society, even encouraging attacks on community institutions like schools and places of worship.  At this point, this scenario seems grim.

    The second marker will be the elections this fall, which now turn out to be omens for the future.  If the Trumpist Republicans win the House and the Senate in the fall, we are in deep trouble, because they are controlled by a vision of dominating white, male supremacy.  The moderates will still control the Presidency, but that may fall in 2024 also.  If the white supremacists win this fall, there will be no significant reform legislation passed in the next years.  Political races in Georgia, Pennsylvania, Michigan, and other states will tell us a lot about the prospects for 2024, with governor and Senate races pointing towards the future.  There is still hope in this area, because voter turnout is key.  I am assuming that all people who read this blog are registered to vote and will vote.  I am asking you to pursue ten people who are not registered to vote and get them registered to vote.  It means an active working on our part to do this.  Then, make sure that people vote in the fall – it is as simple and as important as that.

    The third marker is the Supreme Court – all of us dread the SCOTUS decision coming this month on the Mississippi law on a woman’s right to make decisions about her own body.  The leaked Alito brief makes this a difficult wait to see whether Roe v. Wade will be completely overturned.  Whether it is completely overturned or not, it seems clear that it will be eviscerated, just as SCOTUS eviscerated the Voting Rights Act in 2013.  Another part of this turning will be whether laws like the state of Missouri limiting  the right of women to travel to other states to receive abortions will be upheld.  This is eerily similar to the Dred and Harriet Scott case out of Missouri in 1857, where they were enslaved.  They had traveled to a “free” state and sought their freedom there.  In that case, SCOTUS said that they were not human beings and had no right to even bring a case before the court.

    Thus, it is hard to tell if there will be a civil war in the USA or not in the near future.  It seems clear that we are on the brink of a wave of repression that is coming soon, if the 2022 elections turn out as they are projected now.  One of the questions is what moderates and those on the left will do in response to the repression that is coming.  Get people registered and mobilized to vote – yes.  Contact legislators and seek to get gun reform passed – yes.  Take to the streets in demonstrations to demand justice and equity – yes.  Taking up guns ourselves to protect those who are oppressed and crushed – that is the question.  It may be that our future will be much closer to what Octavia Butler predicted in her book “Parable of the Sower.” In that book, there was no civil war, but there was violence all around, with bands of marauders roaming and attacking, with political ideology not as important as walled and armed camps protecting smaller groups of people.  

    This seems like a harsh and blunt blog, and I hope that I am making the wrong assumption about the short term future.  Younger people, who have responded to me, often indicate that these crazy days are the last throes of a white, male supremacist culture that is in decline. I am hoping that is true, that the forces of white male supremacy and materialism will yield to the power of equity and justice. I am hoping that moderates and progressives will prevail in the fall elections, but right now I hear Margaret Atwood’s voice calling.