An American Armageddon coming?
On November 3, U.S. Election Day 2020, Americans will have the opportunity of a lifetime. Whatever the results, they will get to decide on the future of the nation unlike any other election in it’s 400 year history and set the country upon a path never before taken.
This is a electoral mandate for the ages. There is much at stake. Will Americans vote and decide to keep their democracy intact, such as it is today, or elect to hand over their freedoms to an autocracy instead? Will every American who wants to vote be able to? It stands to be a battle of good versus evil. Americans have taken the individual freedoms and liberties for granted since the beginning. Mostly White Americans, that is. Many others, those of colour for instance, have not been so blessed and this is one of the issues at hand.
Racism, social injustice and inequity, inequality and intolerance have been described as systemic and endemic in America. This is true, to be sure, but the apt day to day reality is that it has been enshrined in the nation’s conscience and behaviour. This is but one of the critical self assessments and judgements that Americans must make — do you want real and lasting change or let the current social movement and upheaval slide away and drag everyone back to the very bad good ol’ days where coloured folks are treated like second class citizens as they have always been?
Americans have snatched and killed many thousands of their own, particularly in the stained and sinful South, where slavery and lynching and abject cruelty toward Blacks has yet to be truthfully and fully reconciled.
The Northern States get no free pass here. There has been more than enough stories of violence and death perpetrated on its citizens in places like the Dakotas, where the natives were slaughtered and in Minnesota, where George Floyd was murdered. Police reform is an absolute necessity.
Isn’t it time to put the Confederacy to bed, better yet — declaw it, once and for all? And what of the Ku Klux Klan, in the 1920’s it had millions of members (there are still thousands on membership rolls today) and played a virulent role in the murder of many Black Americans — how is it that this organization has been allowed to remain in existence?
Your President, Mr. Trump, cannot and will not say, “Black Lives Matter”. Nor can the VP, Mr. Pence. Why not, gentlemen, what’s the problem? Well, I suppose it is to appease and appeal to their base and a hopefully ever shrinking sphere of support. It should be added that Latinos, the Indigenous and Asians have all been treated abysmally throughout the generations as well. The United States is stricken with the cancer of white supremacy.
In his brilliant 2012 songs of protest album, Wrecking Ball, Bruce Springstein has a song titled We Take Care of Our Own. It’s satirical — an indictment of the lost American dream, that the people care for one another, that your communities and governments provide whatever is necessary for your citizens to thrive. Not so, let’s be honest. Before the scourge of the pandemic settled on our shores and infested the people and the land, there were over 40 million Americans existing in poverty. That number has grown astronomically with Covid-19. Goodness, what is going to happen to all these people, many of them children? Meeting the basic needs for so many has become a tremendous challenge.
God help the worker and their family with a job paying subsistence wages who gets sick. He or she stays home — no pay, of course; or go to work sick and get covid and end up in hospital with no medical insurance and perhaps become destitute or worse. Any and all organizations need to start providing their employees with paid sick leave. Everyone in America should have state provided medical insurance in their own right (not connected to an employer). This is no socialistic conspiracy but a notion that all citizens should be able to get treatment when they need it. There needs to be fairness.
I see that this past weekend brought the hordes into Sturgis, South Dakota, for its annual motorcycle extravanganza. By hordes, I mean 10’s of thousands, perhaps more, easy riders all looking for a good time and freedom from the lockdown and to re-establish their hard fought independence and God-given liberty. How unspeakably selfish this is and it gives a whole new meaning to social defiance in this time of a world-wide health crisis. The virus is a beast and it will surely feast.
I believe we all know this — the almighty dollar speaks loudest. Unfortunately. The corporate culture in America is infested with corruption and malfeasance and greed. The acquisition of great wealth seems to a supreme measure of success and attainment, no matter the way it was gained.
Let’s talk about the current Administration in the White House. From the outset it began strangling the life force out of the nation. The democratic lattice of government and social institutions continue to be under threat from executive level efforts at undermining and compromising their integrity and raison d’être. The federal government, from the Oval Office through to its executive branches increasingly seem to operate at the behest of the President. This is dangerous.
Your Supreme Leader wants to become a dictator, benevolent or otherwise. That really depends on how nice everyone treats him. Philistines want to run America and they don’t give a damn whether you or your loved ones live or die. Justice in America is fast becoming an abstract notion and is under increasing threat. Nihilism has crept in and thrives.
Your President has said this: “I, alone, can fix this.” He applied this assertion broadly, whether to international trade deals, fixing inner cities, the nation’s infrastructure, tax law and so on. This does not apply to the federal handling of the Covid-19 Pandemic, however. He believes he gets an exemption here, a free pass for mismanagement because it is the fault of the States and their incompetent Governors.
You see, he is the War Time President without any responsibility or criticism. He sends tear gas, incendiaries and a rabid militia at peaceful protestors simply to make way for a photo op. Seriously, with the tragic death toll in America at his feet history will write a singular chapter forever condemning him for his inaction and gross misconduct.
In his eulogy at the funeral service for George Floyd, the Rev. Al Sharpton referred to the scripture shown in the image posted above. He specifically mentioned the misconduct of the White House when he said, “We are fighting wickedness in high places.”
This isn’t an everyday sort of apocalypse that lies ahead. There will not be an attack from outer space hostiles raining nuclear type fire upon the planet. There won’t be an invasion from a foreign land. The likelihood of a Book of Revelations type second coming is remote. There may be open conflict in the streets of your town and cities, however, if the right result fails to land. You need to get this right.
You are fast approaching a great fork in the road. It’s a world gone crazy. What are you going to do, America? Which path shall ye choose? I offer a prayer and wish you Godspeed.