By Rev. Graylan S. Hagler, Senior Advisor, Fellowship of Reconciliation – USA
The historical and awe-inspiring “No Kings” marches and rallies across the country stirred within most of us some hopefulness that we will get past these dark moments in the life of the country and that we can endure. It was gratifying to know that others saw what we saw, and was moved like we were moved, and could not sit still and allow ourselves to drown in these treacherous waters of authoritarianism. This led many of us to celebrate and many to participate in the election results in key places on last Tuesday. We are not endorsing, but it is clear that people wanted to be heard, respected, and desire the politics of this country to speak to their needs. The outcome of the elections is clearly a counter statement to this bent towards authoritarianism that we are witnessing at home and even in the world. It seems that the forces gathered around the exercise of political power along with the concentration of money are designed to disempower and even silence us. If Tuesday is any indication, we will not be silent. We have seen these nightmarish moments in world history, and looking back we ask how could those things have happened? Why didn’t people do something? I would have done something if I was there, we declare. And now here we are in a similar moment facing our own moral and political challenge.
We are witnessing neighbors being racially profiled and disappeared from our streets. The current policy refers to people as illegal and even use other dehumanizing terms. But for us in the social justice and peace movement, we don’t believe any human being is illegal. Each is given dignity and worth by the Creator and deserves to be treated as such.
Currently some 42 million Americans are under the threat of losing food benefits. These are mothers, children and families who are under the threat of losing access to food because the political parties are staring at one another with each vowing not to budge until the other does.
Federal employees haven’t been paid and that puts a serious strain on families. Here in Washington, DC, and other places around the country, there are many families where both in the household were breadwinners who worked for the federal government. Now those families are facing the total loss of income. This has created a dire circumstance for many families.
Healthcare premiums are poised to go through the roof. The Affordable Care Act needs federal subsidies in order to remain affordable for families, and this is one of the issues that have created the divide and standstill in the federal government.
There is a shaky ceasefire in Gaza (that has been violated many times already by Israel). We must remain attentive and vocal about this issue. The US is threatening intervention in Venezuela and is blowing up boats in international waters. The administration claims that these are narco-terrorists, but we have not seen any evidence that substantiates those allegations. Over the last few days, the US government is suggesting intervention in Nigeria, and we have to ask, what other country around the world that may arouse this current expression of “manifest destiny”!
What I am saying is that there are so many issues, and so much that demands our attention. We cannot be attuned to everything, but we each can do what we can. The important thing is that we do what we can and don’t stop! This is our we work and our way out of this darkness that we find ourselves in.
I recently wrote an article, “We Need More Political Atheists”, lauding the “No Kings” marches but also cautioning us to do like Christian and other groups in the 1 st century did and that is not to bow to Caesar, now or in the future. They were called atheists by Caesar and the King’s people, and they wore that moniker proudly. Let us do likewise. We need to remain the “atheists” and not bow but also when the Kings we like come to power.
The other story is about our economic targeting of Target stores. They were one of the first corporations to design and offer a robust Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) program after the murder of George Floyd. George Floyd was murdered in Minneapolis and Target’s home base is in the same city. When this administration came to power demanding the dismantling of DEI in the government and also in the private and corporate sector Target was one of the first to reverse its DEI initiatives. Rev. Jamal Bryant in Atlanta, Georgia called for a national boycott of Target for its reversal of DEI, and former Ohio state Senator Nina Turner is leading the campaign. In Washington, DC we picked up the mantle, and have been conducting a weekly informational picket of a Target store for more than 32 weeks and Former State Senator Nina Turner came to town to spur us forward. We are doing this because of Target’s reversal of DEI but also teaching that fascism and any authoritarian regime demands that corporations and institutions embrace its policies and therefore strengthen political powers in all of its policies and initiatives.
We have taken on this issue in Washington, DC, but as pointed out there are a myriad of issues and we do what we can where we can. I congratulate you for being involved in whatever you do. Our work, our faithfulness, and our doing whatever that is is the light that will make all the difference in the midst of these challenging and dark times.