A nation besieged by violence is not an easy one in which to live. Syria has been struggling with civil war as millions flee the in hopes of a new start where they can feel safe. By nature, our species tends to seek comfort and safety wherever and by whatever means necessary in order to live in peace and freedom.
Long a beacon for those human values, the United States of America faces perilous times in which violence has become a theme in the national news. Citizens are losing their property and dying due to an injustice that has been ignored for so long that it seems like one of the founding principles of our country.
Before I go much further, I want make a statement for all of my BIPOC friends and readers. I feel your pain. I unequivocally support your cause to end injustice and discrimination wherever it lurks. Watching this turmoil unfold has wrought sadness in so many of us. The times have demonstrated the need for change, and I will fight with you to achieve those ends.
Whether or not we want to admit it, our nation is at a crossroads. Traditionally we effect change by stating our grievances and listening to our friends and neighbors to arrive at mutually-palatable solutions. Peaceful protest remains one of our most-cherished responsibilities.
Burning buildings, looting stores, and fighting in the streets is not protesting. It is lawlessness and I pray that it ends.
Famed science-fiction author Isaac Asimov notes that “Nonviolence doesn’t always work—but violence never does.”
We cannot achieve the change we desire by rioting in the streets. This is a distraction from the cause. It gives others few reasons to listen and more excuses to act belligerent about these motives for justice.
One of the key provisions of the Second Amendment to our constitution refers to the need of a well-regulated militia for the peace and security of our people. Arguably, the framers intended this as a statement for the creation of a military force to stand as a defense against foes both foreign and domestic.
Today’s militia groups are an unregulated bunch of militant collectives more interested in making political statements than in helping to safeguard our freedom. This vigilante idea flies in the face of safety. As we have seen from recent news, these militias are causing more problems than they are solving. The resolve for safety is one thing, but the desire to create more division is something else. Walking into tense situations wearing camo and waving assault weapons only ignites more tension. Law enforcement personnel have a tough job and the presence of armed vigilantes only makes that job more dangerous and difficult.
According to American Author Bryant H. McGill, “Protesting is never a disturbance of the peace. Corruption, injustice, war, and intimidation are disturbances of the peace.”
Violence only begets more violence. Trying to suppress those cries for freedom and pleas for justice reinforces a troubling pattern in American politics—the creeping toward authoritarian tendencies which raged across Western Europe throughout much of the 1930s.
Our need for change has become strikingly clear over the past year. We cannot defeat violence by threatening even more violence. We need our leaders to listen to those voices and to propose change that can work for everyone instead of attempt to squelch protests with threats of force. Closing our minds achieves nothing and allows the problems to fester and worsen.
When protests result in death because of the poor actions of a few with questionable motives, the message has to change. Calls to defund the police are incompatible with the human desire for freedom and safety. If anything, we need to devote more funding for training programs that emphasize de-escalation instead of a cavalier “shoot first and ask questions later” attitude.
As the poet Ella Wheeler Wilcox (a quote often misattributed to Abraham Lincoln) put it, “To sin by silence when we should protest, makes cowards out of men.”
America’s national anthem celebrates our nation as “the home of the brave.”
Fear must not divide us. When we give into that vice, we unknowingly relinquish more of the freedoms we hold dear. We cannot be afraid to seek change in trying times. That is exactly what our common adversaries wish. “A house divided against itself,” Lincoln proclaimed, “cannot stand.”
Historians will be talking about the year 2020 for centuries to come. We can write the next chapter. Let us hope that we choose to save our nation from the forces that seek to divide rather than unite. The end of slavery did not come without intense opposition, and neither did the Civil Rights act of 1964, but we achieved both. We can do the same to end the problem of injustice in America if we work together and listen to—rather than yelling at—one another.