Hear ye, they’re here. They’re here. No, not the British. This time, it’s an inside job. The greatest threat to American democracy no longer comes from across the pond. They’re here and we voted them in. Disguised in patriotic rhetoric, yelling the language of victory, and wielding weapons of nostalgia.
Those in power are no longer governing, they are dividing us. Not simply by race or gender, or class and faith. Instead, all of these tactics are galvanized by fear. Governors now ban books for children on hair texture. Identity is now subversive. Orwell’s vision is made manifest: a place where truth is what power says it is, when reality is written to fit ideology and where memory becomes suspect.
Here ye, the institutions we were told would protect us are failing. On the eve of our 250th anniversary of this great experiment, we need to look at the data. Don’t confuse building a bold new future with dismantling food programs for the poor. Do not fall for those folks who defund your system, then tell you it’s broken and must be privatized.
Moments like these are complex. There are no silver bullets because there are no werewolves. We cannot afford to be disengaged and remain ignorant to the issues at hand. In the words of Benjamin Franklin, “pardoning the bad is injuring the good.”
Hear ye. Three miles from herein 1770, the Boston Massacre took place. The death of Crispus Attucks and four other men was one of the many steps that moved the colonists to end the tyranny of the king. As we approach the 250th anniversary of this nation, we must remember that our greatness is not found in reliving our cruelty from our past, but in our actions today, guided by the aspiration in these words: “We the people of the United States, in Order to form a more perfect Union, establish Justice, ensure domestic Tranquility, provide for the common defence, promote the general Welfare, and secure the Blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our Posterity, do ordain and establish this Constitution for the United States of America.”
