WHEN I THINK ABOUT THE 4TH OF JULY
©Wendell
Griffen, 2017
Justice Is a Verb
July 3, 2017
We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are
created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable
rights, that among these are Life, Liberty, and the pursuit of Happiness.
Samuel DuBose. Philando Castille. Terrence Crutcher. Alton Sterling. Walter Scott.
Freddie Gray. Rekia Boyd. Tamir Rice.
Sandra Bland. Oscar Grant, John
Crawford IV. Eric Garner. Michael Brown, Jr., Jordan Davis, Trayvon
Martin, Renisha McBride. Shantel Davis.
Kendric McDade. Kimani Gray. Amadou Diallo.
When
I think about the 4th of July …
According to a June 25, 2017 Washington
Post news article by Cleve Wootson (http://www.msn.com/en-us/news/us/a-black-off-duty-cop-tried-to-help-stop-a-crime-another-officer-shot-him/ar-BBDb9qz?li=BBnbfcL),
police in the United States have killed 461 people so far this year. Twenty-five percent of the people killed were
black people. During 2016, police killed
963 people. Twenty-four percent (24%) of
the people killed were black people.
Wootson’s article covered the shooting of a black off-duty veteran
police officer by a white on-duty police officer.
When
I think about the 4th of July, I think about the ongoing
state-sponsored, sanctioned, and sustained slaughter and other acts of
terrorism against black, brown, and poor people by law enforcement agents and
other vigilante actors with the same moral outrage expressed by Frederick
Douglass concerning the abomination of human slavery when, in 1852, he
delivered a historic address titled What
to the Slave is the Fourth of July.
When
I think about the 4th of July, I remember twelve year old Tamir Rice,
shot dead by a Cleveland, Ohio policeman while playing in a public park with a
toy pistol.
When
I think about the 4th of July, I think about Eric Garner, choked
to death by Staten Island, New York police as he gasped “I can’t breathe.”
When
I think about the 4th of July, I think about the men, women, and
children who are systematically and routinely abused, slaughtered, and terrorized
by sworn and paid agents of governments whose leaders profess to believe in “life,
liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.”
When
I think about the 4th of July, I ponder and wonder how
self-proclaimed “evangelical Christian” congregations of all denominations and
other names claim faithfulness to the God of the Exodus while supporting
policies and police practices that mistreat hard-working and peaceful immigrants
and their families.
When
I think of the 4th of July, I reflect on the hypocrisy of
flag-waving religious people who profess to celebrate “life, liberty, and the
pursuit of happiness” even as they have supported policies, practices, and
people responsible for making the United States the world’s leading nation
which imprisons its people.
When
I think about the 4th of July, I think about the wicked notions of
patriotism and religion that validate mistreatment of lesbian, gay, bisexual,
and transgender members of this society under the guise of “religious liberty.”
When
I think about the 4th of July, I reflect on the hypocrites who insist
that this nation believes in “life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness” while
supporting policies, practices, and politicians (including the current
President of the United States) who demonize followers of Islam.
When
I think about the 4th of July, “life, liberty, and the pursuit of
happiness,” I remember the loud silence of white churches and preachers
concerning the ongoing domestic and international travesties of justice
practiced by this nation under the guise of “war on drugs,” and “war on
terrorism.”
These evils exist because white
congregations and their clergy tolerate, condone, or are otherwise complicit in
them.
The slaughter of black, brown, and poor
white people by law enforcement officers would cease if white congregations and
their clergy denounced it.
Demonization and discrimination endorsed
and perpetrated against our Muslim and LGBTQ neighbors would end if white congregations
and clergy opposed it.
The United States would not be the
largest developed nation that incarcerates its people if white congregations
and clergy truly believe in and are determined to live up to the Declaration of
Independence claim about a “self-evident truth” that “all men [persons] are
created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable
rights, that among these are Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Happiness.”
So, in the same way that Frederick
Douglass was disgusted when congregations and clergy flouted their piety
through hymn-singing and sermon preaching while black people were kidnapped,
beaten, raped, murdered, traded, robbed of the value of their work, and
brutalized during slavery, I am disgusted when
I think about the 4th of July.
I am disgusted about flag-waving,
hymn-singing, and Pledge of Allegiance chanting congregations, clergy, business
people, and politicians who are engaged in what I consider naked and ceremonial
demonstrations of and devotion to white religious nationalism disguised as
patriotism when I think about the 4th
of July.
And I recall the words Frederick
Douglass uttered in 1852.
Fellow-citizens!
I will not enlarge further on your national inconsistencies. The existence of
slavery [now add abusive, homicidal, and terroristic law enforcement behavior,
mistreatment of immigrants and religious minorities, discrimination against our
lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and other queer neighbors, mass
incarceration, and other injustices] I
have mentioned in this country brands your republicanism as a sham, your
humanity as a base pretence [sic], and your Christianity as a lie. It destroys
your moral power abroad; it corrupts your politicians at home. It saps the
foundation of religion; it makes your name a hissing, and a bye-word to a
mocking earth. It is the antagonistic force in your government, the only thing
that seriously disturbs and endangers your Union. It fetters your
progress; it is the enemy of improvement, the deadly foe of education; it
fosters pride; it breeds insolence; it promotes vice; it shelters crime; it is
a curse to the earth that supports it; and yet, you cling to it, as if it were
the sheet anchor of all your hopes. Oh! Be warned! Be warned!
Fourth of July festiveness, food, and
other hoopla do not change what I know about systemic, longstanding, and
ongoing mistreatment suffered by people of color, poor people, workers, immigrants,
religious minorities, my LGBTQ neighbors, and so many other vulnerable
populations in this nation.
I refuse to think and behave like a
child who can be plied with, made content, and fooled by ice cream, hot dogs,
watermelon, barbecue, fireworks, and patriotic music, speeches, and songs.
I simply wonder how much more time will
pass and how much more injustice and suffering will be perpetrated and endured
before people who claim to be followers of Jesus behave like prophets of divine
truth, love, and justice in the face of glaring and persistent expressions of
despotism and tyranny by this society.
How long, O God? How long?
