By Pastor Rasheed Z. Baaith
“Fear not, for I am with you; be not dismayed, for I am your God; I will strengthen you, I will help you, I will uphold you with my righteous right hand.” (Isaiah 41:10)
It is a scene out of the most horrendous moments in life. People whose greatest desire in their life is to live in freedom. So they have waded through rivers, climbed mountains, survived dry lands, fought off hunger and thirst and fatigue. Not to mention being victimized by each other at times. But why have they come? Why endure the unendurable?
Surely not to crouch or cower or be herded by horses ridden by men who see them as other. Surely not sleep on cement beds, have their babies in the most unsanitary of birth conditions in full view of thousands of other people. “je n’en reviens pas”
No, they came that they might have life and have it more abundantly.
But I’m thinking they may have made their arduous journey to the wrong country. Americans, at least a great many of them, are in a mode of thinking where they do not accept even native born Americans. There is a spirit of nativism here that has infected so many. And the strain of it makes those infected see anyone who does not think like them or look like them be seen as “other.”
Not just as an “other”, but an “other” that should be controlled to the most extreme extent possible. Being labeled “other” has in America, usually been a question of color. The line of demarcation between social acceptance and rejection was decided by hue and shade of skin. But no more. In a peculiar kind of progress, while complexion still plays a huge role in denying humanity, differention now includes even more how you think.
How one votes is the most obvious indication of how one thinks or perceives social realities. As a result there is an assault on our voting rights not seen since the 1800s. They are changing state laws and ordinances to achieve with political deceit what they cannot accomplish any other way. We, of course are aware of this conspiracy but refusing to really organize a fight against this growing movement toward autocracy and totalitarianism.
Which takes us back to those “living” under the bridge. Because of America being on the perimeter of destroying democracy, and the foundation of our democracy being freedom as defined by the 14th amendment, those under the bridge cannot be considered eligible for consideration of a freedom or a citizenship that is in danger of ceasing to exist. Even for those born here.
Haiti too has much culpability for the cave under the bridge in which so many of its citizens are suffering. For much too long their leaders have ignored the needs of Haitian people. And for much too long the Haitian people have suffered them to do so.
Haiti alone in this hemisphere, as a Black country fought for and took independence from oppressors. In 1791 when Dutty Boukman began Haiti’s rebellion, the people of Haiti have shown their refusal to just suffer. It may be time for the Haitian people to rebel once more.
Be the first to comment