As I look back over my life I am amazed constantly at how, as human beings, we have created such a complicated mess when to live a good life should be a simple accomplishment.
Martin Luther King, Jr. was a martyr because he could not live his life ignoring the ills in the society which surrounded him. Most of us live our lives contributing to those ills and making them worse. Our needs are not simple. They grow more complicated as we age in a society which markets hourly with goals to enlarge already out of control egos which we are willing to pay very high prices to satisfy.
I remember Martin Luther King, Jr. from my days as a teen ager. He was not a big hero, he was a young man, studying at Divinity School and doing what he could, with others, to mitigate and change the apartheid which existed in these United States.
A particularly strong memory of Martin King was the time when the Jr. High Choir at my Church went on a trip, driving across the back roads of Mississippi, Georgia, Alabama. Rev. Nicholas Hood was the inspiration behind those trips and we met up at different places with Andrew Young and Martin King. We were about integration and attempting to break down barriers. Amazingly, as I look at my life, that is what I have been doing all of my years on this earth and I don’t see many results from the effort. To try to mitigate evil when it is so strongly entrenched takes more than my life has been able to deliver.
We spent many weekends visiting white churches and always stayed the night in the home of whites where there were young people our ages and on Sunday mornings we sang with them as a part of the Church Service where Martin King preached the sermon.
Our reception in the homes of these white families where we stayed was always warm and welcoming. We ate together, got to know one another and Sunday morning services gave meaning to what we were doing and why. It was truly God’s work. Doing that work, however, you come to know that good is always combined with evil and I saw for the first time what racism was all about.
Having been raised in a middle-class African American community, we were involved in a fairly closed community so our sense of self-worth and who we were was intact. I won’t try to explain that – if you don’t have any idea my sympathy goes out to you.
While I had white friends and white family and the city in which I was raised didn’t make a big deal out of that, but accepted much of that back and forth, it was not what the world in general accepted. Those weekends visiting white churches were about to open my eyes to the evils that existed in this world in ways I could not have imagined.
As we arrived, on a Saturday, in one town where we were to spend the weekend and sing in Church that Sunday morning, we were introduced to the young ‘white’ Jr. choir – our counterparts. At the end of dinner we were split up and sent to spend the night with families who volunteered to be our hosts for the weekend.
While we were getting ready for bed, frantic calls went out from one house to another and the next thing we knew, the ‘white’ families with whom we stayed had swiftly rounded us up and had practically thrown us into the station wagons which brought us and we were speeding down country lanes where we saw Martin King, Andrew Young and Nicholas Hood hanging in effigy from the trees as we passed. We began to realize what was happening when we saw a group of whites coming down the road trying to catch up to us. They were led by an older man with a shot gun. He was not the only one in that crowd with guns. What amazed me was the anger, bitterness, horribleness of their emotions against a group of 14 to 16 year olds – a church group visiting their neighborhood, come to sing in their church on a Sunday morning where Martin King was to preach.
That was the first time I saw racism in its raw form and saw the threat that my very existence posed to all of those people so furious that we dared to think we could sing in their church with their children. Since, as African Americans we didn’t self-segregate, their out of control emotions would force us to with guns and sticks and bricks and bats. Who was their god? It was clearly not God we worshipped on Sundays and met to talk about and study Scripture supporting the structures built to worship God – to learn about Jesus – to worship Christ. Their Churches had the same trappings as the one in which we worshipped – the same kind of cross, the stained glass windows, similar architecture with bibles in the pews, but clearly it was not about the worship of God. They had created a god with whom they could relate with values, a character, and all the trappings we build around religion which worked for them in their need to exist as ‘white supremacists’. The viciousness and ability and need to even murder if that is what it took to maintain themselves as “better than” – supreme over all others – oppressors of peoples not like them was so strong nothing else seemed to matter to them. If they could have caught up to Nicholas Hood, Martin King, Andrew Young they clearly would have hung them instead of the effigies they placed on the road we were driving down.
We were accused of being part of a sex ring. We were supposedly in town and staying with the boys and girls our ages to have sex with them, to morally corrupt them and on and on it went.
As I experienced all of that I experienced a group of ‘whites’ who were so corrupt themselves that they were projecting onto others their sins. I also experienced a group of ‘whites’ who were truly in their church to worship God. In the lives of this last group, they acted out of their belief system which is probably why they were the people who invited us to be a part of their communion. Seeing the evil amidst the good in which they lived and raised their children they were moved to act. At that same moment Nicholas Hood, Andrew Young and Martin Luther King, Jr. were there to help facilitate what they needed to do to bring love, goodness, justice, into the lives of their community.
Since that time I have seen ‘whites’ who live in many radically different ways. Some follow the call of God in their lives and understand they are one with us all. Some follow the call of the god they created and re-create as the need exists to help them live as unauthentic a life as possible, projecting an image onto the world which is very different from who they really are – always hiding the shame they feel -not trying to be perfect, but trying to project a perfect image of themselves – actually living out of their sin instead of living into the authenticity of their beautiful and flawed selves.
The next Sunday Nicholas Hood gathered us together and we studied Scripture while talking about that experience. He was determined to put what happened to us in the context of the Gospels.
Since that time, Martin King walked a long ways on that road and had many encounters with people who came after him the way that group came after all of us because they were so threatened by a Jr. High Choir singing in their Church on a Sunday and staying in the homes of their friends and parishioners some of whom they had known all of their lives, but were still able to accuse of exposing their children to ‘those sex fiends’.
I still see that group of people running down that back country road trying to stop, shoot and kill young teenagers who were such a threat to them and their way of life.
Martin King gave his life to save such people. Donald Trump gave his to make sure such people would live eternally on this earth and be able to wreck as many lives as they can reach and to destroy as much of life as he can reach – including his own.
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A Promoter of Conspiracy Theories – President?
Tuesday, December 6th, 2016America – really? You elected a man who was the spokesperson and promoter of conspiracy theories as your president? Really? Come on – that can’t be real. Are you really that racist, America?
The last president spent eight years in office – an African American. He was elected – and re-elected. He was respected around the world. He wasn’t perfect, but he did a pretty good job. He had no scandals during his time in office. He had no affairs. He spent his time with his family. He raised two daughters and now into their teen years – some say, the most difficult time for parents. And still, after seeing all of that you elected who? A man who was the spokesperson in Chief for the Birther Movement? Who was on television and in countless videos speaking far and wide about Barack Obama not being an American. Who called your duly elected president a liar. A man who claimed that your American president was living a lie to his fellow Americans by claiming to be an American when he was actually born in Africa.
America, you laughed at this Donald Trump, the Conspiracy theorist in Chief – and then you elected him your next president? You made him the butt of many jokes and the late night comics had a field day.
America, is your need to identify as White that strong. You are, after all, the ones who set up “White” as a race. So I guess we should not be that surprised when you feel the need to protect this “White American” race. You didn’t realize when you set up this White race identity that it would not only be about slavery and identifying the other as “Colored”, “Black” and now “African American”, but would become your ingrained identity and keep you forever needing to be seen as “better than”. You went so far as setting up White Privilege to go along with that White American identity. Jealous of the English Colonialism with which they tried to rule the world?
Problem with that is colors always seemed to me to be more interesting, have more depth, be about something. “White” seemed so lacking in ….. something. And now I see what “White” lacks – Character? Ethics? Truth? And has a little “Evil” ingrained. We thought, at some point, that you would just become “American”.
Who is this man? Who is this conspiracy theorist who so portrayed your president for eight years – and longer – as an African who was fooling the American public by claiming to be an American when in fact he was not. And you – citizens of the United States – elected this man, this conspiracy theorist, your president. Donald Trump – president elect of the United States. Chief Conspiracy Theorist.
Your founding fathers must be proud because they slipped into the Constitution this Electoral College, which they hoped would insure that White Males (hopefully) Northern Europeans would always be president of these United States of America. You kept that Electoral College in your Constitution for hundreds of years as a bulwark against any serious kind of desegregation. Wow! What foresight you all had. But what a price you have paid. Isn’t that what stopped Al Gore? But then maybe you were right to do that because wasn’t that – no, couldn’t have been, must have been someone else – a look alike. His character wouldn’t let him. But then he claimed to have invented the internet, which dropped his character a rung or two, so maybe that was him running into that Tower.
And so the founders have reached into the 21st century with that desire to maintain slavery and have caused you Americans to elect a man who is:
HOW THE MIGHTY HAVE FALLEN!
Abraham Lincoln didn’t bring you down! – he raised you up.
Martin Luther King, Jr. didn’t bring you down! – he raised you even higher.
but Donald Trump is bringing you wayyyyyyyy down.
And look at how your BIG MEN are falling all over themselves running in to kiss the ring. Their character – their ethics – their very souls are on display for all to see.
Wasn’t that Mitt Romney we saw running into Trump Tower and having dinner with the Almighty One?
And we though Mitt Romney was one of the good guys. When he saw what was happening with the election in his beloved country, he stood up and was counted as someone who said he was not going along with this travesty. He didn’t say “evil” but he might as well have because what he did say came down to the same thing. But what was he really doing? Did he read the tea leaves and saw that Hillary Clinton was going to win so he was not downing Donald Trump and taking an ethical stand, but positioning himself to be in line for some kind of substantial position in Hillary’s government?
Oh, Oh, Nooooooooo! Not him too! Oh my goodness – there goes Al Gore – into the Tower! Well, we always had our suspicions about him. He tried, but he just couldn’t pull off being such a good guy. And now, we see him totally uncovered.
Oh, help me to my seat and cover my eyes and ear, I don’t know how much more of this I can stand.
Oh – and when your new president goes traveling around the world with his ‘wife” – which one? The one who allowed all those pictures to be taken of herself in the various kinds of poses that a prostitute takes to advertise her wares. Now, be careful here, I am not calling her a prostitute, but I said clearly, the kind of pictures a prostitute takes – naked on a bear rug with high heels up in the air and handcuffed to the bed and etc. Some are calling her a soft porn model. We will just look at the pictures circling the world and shake our heads. Trump better get the Muslims and soon because when those pictures of his wife start circulating in religious Muslim circles – oh my!
And how does your president-elect handle his anti-semitism. Well, his daughter has put him in a trap because she went off and married an Orthodox Jew. Well, not only did she do that, but she became one herself. Now you know in Judaism, the children take on the identity of the mother, so if she hadn’t converted, her children would not be in danger of being Jews. But she went off and did the thing so now her husband and her children are Jews. So how did your President-elect handle that? Is that his anger at this marriage, all of you Americans, that turned him so viciously against Muslims? So badly so that he wants to eliminate all of them! Is this going to be another purge by the Norther Europeans. The last time they tried to get rid of the Jews. This time there is a Jew sitting in the halls of power so they are going to try to get rid of all the Muslims. Well, just as well. Eventually, somehow, they will rid the world of all those they various and sundry people they consider “minorities”.
Oh, America, my heart aches for you. Don’t you know you have to pay for your sins? Haven’t you seen enough of God’s retribution to know that your day is coming? Maybe this is it! Maybe this is the beginning of your having to pay for the slavery you brought on Africans. Or maybe this is the beginning of your retribution for what you have done to those who lived in the land before the Northern Europeans arrived. What are they called today? Indians? No, that is politically incorrect – Native Americans. What a name. Call them Native Americans and then invade and destroy the little bits and pieces of land they have left and make sure it will soon be covered with the results of the many oil spills that will happen,as those Northern Europeans make loads of money in the companies that are going to dig up their privately owned land drilling for what? Covering up what? Taking back what? Is this a new form of genocide – against those you have given the honorific title of Native American and made them think that this title was their idea?
Oh, America, I pray for you every day. There are so many good people in your country. What is going to happen to them. They seem to be allowing these few others to take over and destroy every dream they have ever had. Or maybe that is the problem – have they been so treated they don’t have anymore dreams?
My goodness, some of those good people are Northern Europeans. Then who are these who have so wrecked the land and continue to wreck the land? Who are those who let them? I understand Donald Trump owns stock in the company about to destroy the land of the native Americans to cause oil to pollute the water so they will have nothing to drink. And what about the rest of us – we won’t either.
You have allowed whoever these people are to destroy your country. To invade and change the dreams of your people. You started out in such a beautiful way. We really hoped you would succeed. But you have now been derailed and who knows if your country will ever be the same again.
Germany certainly didn’t expect to descend into a Nazi state. And today, it seems as though it is only the Germans who really recognize the danger you are in America. Have they learned from their mistakes?
So what now? As your country began to become diverse – that beautiful diverse place where all were supposed to be welcome – what is the quote “bring me your tired,….” That poem written by Emma Lazarus and cut into the stone with that gift from France to be a beacon to Exiles from all over the world
“Not like the brazen giant of Greek fame,
With conquering limbs astride from land to land;
Here at our sea-washed, sunset gates shall stand
A mighty woman with a torch, whose flame
Is the imprisoned lightning, and her name
Mother of Exiles. From her beacon-hand
Glows world-wide welcome; her mild eyes command
The air-bridged harbor that twin cities frame.
“Keep, ancient lands, your storied pomp!” cries she
With silent lips. “Give me your tired, your poor,
Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free,
The wretched refuse of your teeming shore.
Send these, the homeless, tempest-tost to me,
I lift my lamp beside the golden door!”
Oh, No! Is the writer of this poem – Emma – a woman? Is that why they turned against immigrants? Will that open the door to taking her poem off the Statue of Liberty? And a better, more American under Donald Trump type poem in its place?
Well, that is certainly no longer America. Will it ever be again? With Donald Trump and his friends – not likely. The United States of America used to travel the world telling others how they should change to be more like America. Walk hand in hand into the sunset with the Casino Operator and his Soft Porn Model wife – naahh, that doesn’t sound quite right.
And here you are America – flirting with becoming another Russia; another fascistic state with its super wealthy governing people and underlings in line for bread – you can ignore this if you dare, but stay on this road and that day is coming and sooner than you think.
I used to think America was the greatest nation on earth. Today, I realize you are the most foolish.
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