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National Day of Prayer and Protest
Cast thy bread upon the water!!! My Name is John Burl Smith a disabled veteran, activist and author of “The 400th” From Slavery to Hip Hop; these are just a few of the honors I have achieved as a proud American citizen. However, there are many things I am not proud of as an American; the most prominent is the level of gun violence and gun culture that is growing across this country. It seems, as a nation, America is trying to return to the days of the late 1800 hundreds, everyone carried guns, when lynching and massacres of Native People were commonplace.
The Gun Violence Archive says 147 mass shootings have occurred so far in 2021. Their definition of mass shooting is a minimum of four gunshot victims. President Joe Biden has announced a half-dozen executive actions to combat what he called an “epidemic and an international embarrassment” of gun violence in America. Moreover, AD Merrick Garland has ordered an overhaul of guns, especially “long gun” policy and definition. Both of these actions are sorely needed, American citizens need to reinforce government actions, by expressing their outrage with the current wave of mass shooting and the easy access to guns.
I have joined with concerned citizens, activists and political leaders like Black Live Matter, Movement for Black Live, The Squad, Mothers Against Gun Violence and many others in calling for a national day of prayer and protest May, the on Saturday before Mother’s Day. We are coming together to not only raise our voices and march, but gather in churches, parks and homes to mourn and commemorate the huge toll of over 12,400 women, men and children who have been killed as a result of gun violence in the United States in 2021 alone thus far. These gatherings will call the names of victims and release balloons, with names attached to carry prayers and love aloft.
This “National Day of Prayer and Protest” is just a small effort against the billions in blood money of advertising and political power of the gun lobby in America, but the mothers, fathers, siblings, friends and other loved one can say “NO” to murder and mayhem, we in America are enduring. We will never relent and surrender to those who live large on the blood money from death, pain and grief. We ask all Americans to sing, pray and protest with us on May 8th the Saturday before Mother’s Day. Someone needed to say this out loud (SOL).
Opinions Are Like Opinions; Everyone Has One
John Burl Smith
I will grant that everyone has a right to their opinion, however all opinions are not equally valid! Anyone can express their opinion on any subject, but because they feel strongly about the subject, does not mean their points are well taken and valid regarding the information on which they base their opinion. Three perfect examples are race, racism and the nature of life and impact of racism on descendants of American slavery. For most people, especially in America, these words or subjects are all the same and everyone has a right to express their opinion on them, and I principle I agree but not in fact. Again however, simply or merely expressing one’s opinion does not give it validity. Let us look closer and examine these words one at a time.
Race identifies groups of humans, as distinct from other groups, because of their supposed physical or genetic traits, which is shared by the group and classifies them together on the basis of common history, nationality, or geographic distribution or genealogical lineage. Racism, on the other hand, is the belief that a group of humans possessing different behavioral traits or corresponding physical appearance is valued as less then separated and divided based on another group’s belief of superiority to another race. Their belief of superiority is used to justify prejudice, discrimination, or antagonism directed against the less devalued race, ethnicity or group, which is often based in social perceptions of biological differences. These views are expressed as social actions, norms, practices, beliefs, or by political systems that rank or rate different races as inherently superior or inferior to each other, based on presumed shared inheritable traits, abilities, or qualities. When examining America these definitions and practices were applied to slaves and their progeny when the Founding Fathers wrote and ratified the US Constitution.
All those definitions apply to the nature and quality of life descendants of American slavery have endured based on the impact of race and racism, which defined every aspect of life in America for them. This is why opinion is the battlefield over words on which any and everyone feel they have an equal right not only to express their thoughts on these subjects and their opinion has equal validity. Here is where 3 more definitions—equal, equality and equity are important. The etymology of the word “equal” is from the Latin word “æqualis”, meaning “uniform”, “identical”, or “equal”, from aequus (“level”, “even”, or “just”). The first use of an equal sign, equivalent to 14 x +15=71 in modern notation, as opposed to ≠ unequal. On the other hand, equality is the state of being equal, especially in status, rights, and opportunities. It is synonymous to fairness, justness, equitability, impartiality, even-handedness and egalitarianism, which slavery’s descendants have never experienced in America. An example is “An organization aiming to promote racial equality.” Lastly, equity is the quality of being fair and impartial—equity of treatment. It is synonymous to fairness, fair-mindedness, the value of the shares issued by a company, value, worth, valuation or alternatively—the value of a mortgaged property after deduction of charges against it.
My point here is to show people use these 3 words alternatively or interchangeably, but obviously their meanings are not synonymous or equivalent. However, when talking about the nature of life for descendants of American slavery and the impact of racism on them, white people are allowed to shoehorn these words into their opinion pieces to create a false equivalency, under the guise of “everyone having a right to express their opinion.” This is acceptable to white people because under the definition of racism “social actions, practices, beliefs, or political systems that used racism to discriminate, view themselves as superior, while viewing others as inherently inferior and see equality as a zero sum game. They use terms in their opinion pieces, like “critical race theory” to make request for justice by descendants of American slavery seem equivalent to socialism or communism, rather than demand for equality and equity.
Looking at American history there is no denying the facts that the American government is racist, discriminatory and genocidal in terms of its policies against descendants of American slavery. Moreover, slavery itself was genocide but once bond slavery ended, federal, state and local governments erected the system of “Jim Crow” segregation, convict leasing and share cropping, which was tantamount to slavery without chains, designed to disenfranchise slavery’s descendants until the 1970s.
These are the facts of history that rightwing conservatives refuse to acknowledge in their opinion pieces and try to make it seem, white people today had anything to do with slavery, therefore, white people today are exonerated and extricated from demand by slavery’s descendants for equity. Patrice Onwuka offered an opinion piece in The Hill “The truth about racism in Congress” (4-1-21) where he creates a dichotomy of equality and equity where there must be a choice between the them, as he railed against Senators Tammy Duckworth and Mazie Hirono because they are pressing Pres. Biden to appoint more Hispanics, Blacks, AAPI and LGBTQ to major administration positions. White people see no equality or equity issue, looking back at all the “white only” administration since 1789—231 years—but rightwing conservatives are up in arms and ready to attack the Capitol a second time because a handful of nonwhite people have been given posts. But what is being overlooked here and I agree with Sens. Duckworth and Hirono that Pres. Biden’s major cabinet position has gone to whites.
White people may as well get over it. The American electorate has changed forever and for the best. President Biden’s DOJ must take on Republican legislatures’ “Jim Crow” laws in the courts to guarantee that Republicans apply those laws equally and equitably. Polls in Black, brown, yellow and red communities cannot have 5,000 voters and white polls have 3,500 or Native People have to travel 15 miles to the polls, while white ranchers only have to go 5 miles to vote. We demand the DOJ insure there is equity and a level playing field. Synonymously, young progressives are not intimidated by Republican voter suppression laws and are going to take on Republicans in courts, the streets and at the ballot box. We have the numbers and we are determined to turn those numbers out, come 2022 and we cannot wait to face Republicans at the polls.
Are high school ID cards considered acceptable voting identification? High school seniors will lead the charge, because they want greater access to a college education and a jobs program in the high tech, infrastructure and climate change programs Pres. Biden is trying to bring on line. High school seniors were a major portion of new voters in Georgia, and the 18 to 25 demographic that put Pres. Biden in the White House, and Raphael Warnock and Jon Ossoff in the Senate. All young progressive are asking is equal access to the ballot box, and that is the job of Pres. Biden, the DOJ and Congress, if they want to stay in power.
