I Tremble for My Country When I Know That God Is Just

For those concerned about social justice, expanded economic opportunities, unfettered access to the exercise of the right to vote, ending gun violence, assured non-race-based policing in our communities, and protection against domestic and foreign ISIS-based terrorism; events in 2015 indicate that these major challenges will continue in 2016.

This year also indicated that to expect or rely on our Congress to significantly and positively address these challenges would be doing so at our peril. Except tor the bi-partisan budget, the presidential and congressional election contests of 2016 have cast a paralyzing shadow over Congress.

Now more than ever, if we really want any meaningful action to address and resolve the issues recited above, we are going to have to make them happen. As I have written in this space before “WE ARE THE ONES WE’VE BEEN WAITING FOR!”

A friend of mine forwarded to me the link to an article which describes the current income and wealth disparity in our nation today. The article contends that “America’s biggest economic dilemma is private affluence amid public squalor.”

In some of my speeches, I sometimes refer to Silicon Valley as “a trillion-dollar platform of wealth.” I have said that it is morally obscene, in the City of San Francisco and Silicon Valley, for persons, many of whom are United States military veterans, to be homeless, without food, and sleeping on the sidewalks of our streets.

We are the richest most powerful country in the world. How is this possible in Silicon Valley, one of the richest places in our nation?

Darren Walker, President of the Ford Foundation, in a recent op-ed in the New York Times suggested that the massive aggregate private wealth held and managed by several foundations in our country should be subject to qualitatively new criteria in determining a prospective donee’s eligibility for a foundation grant.

Quoting Dr. King from a book he wrote in 1963, Mr. Walker reminded us that “Philanthropy is commendable, but it must not cause the philanthropist to overlook circumstances of economic injustice which make philanthropy necessary.” He writes that foundations “should fund people, their ideas and organizations that are capable of addressing deep-rooted injustice.”

Later in 1967 Dr. King wrestled with the appropriateness of publicly speaking in opposition to the war in Vietnam. Aside from what he regarded as the “immorality” of the war, he and those of us who were privileged to serve as his advisors, concluded that as long as the war continued the treasury of our government would be drained of those financial sources that otherwise could be allocated to urgent domestic social and economic programs.

Similarly, today one cannot be serious about seeking solutions to address the public squalor amidst unprecedented private and corporate wealth unless we are willing to challenge those foreign policy initiatives, funded by our government, with moneys that today could also otherwise be used to address our urgent domestic problem needs.

During the last months of 2015, the Republican and Democratic presidential primary debates received significant media attention, as well as numerous police killings of black persons, including a black woman recently in Chicago and a 14-year-old boy, Tamir Rice, in Cleveland, OH a year ago.

Race-based police use of lethal force against black persons may be the smoldering fuse of a ticking time bomb. Potentially, this could explode, igniting nationwide domestic unrest in 2016. Regrettably, the general community does not see or feel the widening anger and disenchantment extant among a substantial number of young black men and women, nationwide, toward the police in their respective communities.

A barometer of this is the growing national support for the Black Lives Matter movement. Ironically, few of the traditional “Civil Rights Leaders” of the 20th century, nor the current leaders in the Republican and Democratic parties seem to understand the “fierce urgency of now” mindset that is fueling the protest actions of those participating in the movement.

Threats of domestic terrorism are also a 24/7 nationwide concern. However, possible protest actions of the Black Lives Matter movement in response to police actions against African-Americans, where effecting an arrest first by non-lethal action, should be of great concern to all of us.

Thomas Jefferson, in writing about the contradiction between the existence of slavery, and his own ownership of slaves, to the lofty words of our Declaration of Independence, which he wrote, said “I tremble for my country when I know that God is just.” The same can be said today about the growing and spreading anger, not just in Chicago, about repeated instances of police using deadly force as the first option in seeking to arrest African-Americans in various places throughout our country.

I too tremble for my country when I know that God is just.