It is true that our democratic republic has problems.
Since 1776, we have had a constant stream of troubles.
Government of the People, by the People and for the People is no walk in the park, no easy matter.
It takes a lot of work to make a Great Nation, but we did manage, by the sweat of our brows,with a little help from our friends, and the grace of God to weave this ragtag string of thirteen colonies into a Great Nation, a nation so great that millions of immigrants have come here to explore the opportunity that a 3000-mile continent and a bunch of hard-working people have developed and maintained.
But we have had some problems.
Our Civil War, 1860-64, was the worst.
But our Union survived that war.
At the end of that war, our Congress passed the Southern Homestead Act, which made provision for free’d slaves to get a foothold of their own in southern soil, and to eventually earn, by the sweat of their brow, land ownership.
As the years rolled by, however, the constrictions of a segregated infrastructure, backed up by the KKKlan and other racist entities, some of them official-- strangled out most of the Homestead opportunities that that Congressional act of 1865 had provided for black folk in the South.
A century later, during the 1950’s and ’60’s, I was growing up in that Deep South.
Nowadays, many of those old prejudices and abusive attitudes against black folk still linger in some of our institutions.
Yes, even to this day, in the 21st-century, we discover, through social media, viral-video evidence of systemic injustice in law enforcement in many of our cities. Police brutality should have been worked out of the system by now. We have laws—both Constitutional and Common Law—that prescribe decent and just procedures by which citizens can be arrested after a crime is detected or suspected by a law enforcement officer, instead of smothered to death.
Recently, as several instances of police brutality and even murder by police have been brought, via social media, to the attention of our attentive citizens, we in this tragic nation have witnessed a groundswell of discontent brought forth by our resolve to eliminate illegal abuse, especially in these cities—Minneapolis, Louisville, Atlanta, Baltimore, where systemic abuses have been, by viral video, hurled unexpectedly into our awareness of our tragic failure to assure Justice throughout the land
Black lives do matter.
What we need is Justice applied the same everywhere, in every city, every neighborhood, every "hood."
Back in the day when I was raised up, we used to recite a pledge of Allegiance to the flag and to the United States of America; that pledge ended with this phrase:
“ with Liberty and Justice for All.”
We need Justice in Law Enforcement; we need Justice in the Courts. We need Justice in the hearts of our citizens. We need Justice--every citizen getting the same treatment-- in Law Enforcement.
Thousands of years ago, a prophet, Amos spoke correctively to our earliest forebears when he declared:
“Let Justice roll down like the waters, and righteousness like a might stream!
When I was about thirteen or so, an American prophet stepped forward and renewed that call for righteous treatment. Dr. King, echoing the ancient prophet, declared:
“Let Justice roll down like the waters, and righteousness like a mighty stream.”
But there’s been a lot of water to pass beneath the bridge since those nascent days of our Make-America-Just corrective Civil Rights movement.
Although I am a registered Republican, I have noticed that, these days, Democrats take that call to Justice quite seriously, and they want to work cooperatively toward rectifying unjust practices in the cities, where a few bad cops need to be reminded that black lives do matter.
Whereas, Republicans generally have their heads in the sand about these Justice issues, as they’re too caught up in their stock market casino or their comfy cave cocoon or our evangelical bubble to notice or even care about what’s going on down in the hood, or even down the block if mama is dark or daddy is detained.
Even so, we are still all together now in the national quest toward liberty and justice for all.
We need to fix these injustice issues if we are ever going to be a great nation again. Being a great nation again does not mean we are fat 'n happy and whistlin' Doodah, snackin' and watchin' violent sexy videos on the god-forsaken internet while folk makin' maybe $11 bucks an hour are tryin to make by handin' out fastfood in the gas-guzzlin' drive-thru.
Why my evangelical brethren would, it seems, settle for enabling the stubborn rantings of a president who has by hook or crook manipulated six bankruptcies, evaded 26 accusations of sexual misconduct, slid past almost 4000 lawsuits, and presently obsesses on a very very big obstructionist refusal to accept his electoral defeat, which he was dealt at the hands of We the People in a validated national election. . . I cannot understand. And I will not condone.
Meanwhile back at the ranch, looking beyond this man's personal crises and lifelong mistakes, we the people need to move forward again without his dead dictatorial weight, and work together toward our collective quest for liberty and justice for all.
Why my so-called evangelical brethren would support that manipulative tyrant who is obsessed with promoting his own portfolio power profile-- instead of supporting the legally conducted election of a decent man who has served as a Senatorial lawmaker for 48 years-- a God-fearing Christian who speaks kindly instead of rudely and who wants to bring us back together again instead of provoking enmity among our citizenry-- a seasoned, reasonable leader who has already gathered the electoral majority of our citizen voters . . .
Why my so-called evangelical brethren would support that rude tyrant instead of the kind statesman, hell if I know.
We Will have hell to pay if we don't get this mess this straightened out; and it looks like Mr. Trump is milking our last ransom payment for all he can get out of it.
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