Riots and Protests are happening nationwide in all 50 states of the US, abroad as well, in 20+ countries, where millions gathered in Amsterdam, millions protested in France, as thousands in London, Canada, Brazil, Spain, Italy and more.
Other countries are laughing at America, as in the height of the protests over George Floyd, murdered in cold blood by 4 policemen in uniform, the 45th US President sheltered himself in the bunkers, located in the White House basement.
Trump has ordered the construction of walls around the White House, once known as the people’s house by the Obamas, who were visited by millions in 8 years, to towering 13 foot high walls surrounding its perimeter, similar to the walls of Jerusalem surrounding Palestine.
Trump was deemed to have constructively resigned and rightly so, from the right, George Will and from the left, Robert Reich. He was unable to provide responsible leadership to the Coronavirus pandemic – US has 107, 468 deaths since Jan.22, 2020, as the nationwide multicultural protests demanding justice for #GeorgeFloyd, has lasted for several days.
He reappeared the next day, followed by the Secret Service who unleashed violence on the nonviolent citizens, assembled in Lafayette Park.
Without provocation, these armed Secret Service personnel illegally used their batons hurled tear gas bombs, including the use of Black Hawk helicopters to disperse folks gathered inside the park, including those who identified themselves as members of the media.
It was naked brute force and frivolous and gratuitous use of violence to clear the park, so that the President can have his photo taken, holding up the bible as his props. Brazen and unconscionable!
As a Jesuit priest, I stand in solidarity with the people lost to armed violence this year, including George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, Ahmaud Arbery and many others. I stand with those who stood with them in life and with those who now stand with them in death.
Fr. James Martin
Racism as St. John Paul II said, is one of the most “persistent and destructive evils” in the United States. And I have to acknowledge my own participation in it.
Racism is, as, the Rev. Bryan Massingale, a Catholic theologian, says, a sickness of the soul. This sickness has been spread since the first Africans were forcibly brought to America and sold as slaves 400 years ago. Our nation is one founded and continuously shaped by white supremacy.“White supremacy,” writes Father Massingale, “fundamentally is the assumption that this country, its political institutions, its cultural heritage, its social policies and its public spaces belong to white people in a way that they do not belong to others. It is the basic assumption that some naturally belong in our public and cultural space and others have to justify being there. Further, it is the suspicion that those ‘others’ are in ‘our’ space only because someone has made special allowances for them.”- Fr. James Martin
