In 1838 and 1839, as part of Andrew Jackson's Indian removal policy, the Cherokee nation was forced to give up its lands east of the Mississippi River and to migrate to an area in present-day Oklahoma. The Cherokee people called this journey the "Trail of Tears," because of its devastating effects. The migrants faced hunger, disease, and exhaustion on the forced march. Over 4,000 out of 15,000 of the Cherokees died.
It’s time folks, to vote with our feet. And hopefully we’ll vote out some of the hate that has taken over our hearts and our actions.This presidential race has driven home what many have known existed in America: hatred for those who are different from the white, male, cis-gendered, straight, US-born, christian, english-speaking, able-bodied/minded norm; clarity of corruption and power of wealth; the fine and at times absent line between misogyny and sexism; the one-party system we pretend does not exist. With all this heaviness that has taken over our country, our classrooms, our workplace, our shopping centers, we might be feeling it’s not worth voting... or super-charged to vote...which one are you?
In Cecil County, MD known for its Klan activity, the Klan-mentality has reawakened to the trump-ets spreading hate. A friend living there shared that a white man yelled at her: “get out the way you N#$$%^ B#)@!” as she was driving in a parking lot. In another Maryland suburb a white mother told her teenage daughter in public not to shake the hand of a black child because she was a “N#$$%^”. The pride of hate is ripe in Maryland and beyond.
Trump has re-awakened the roots of hatred in our country, not to encourage healing, but to encourage further segregation and violence. And he has done this with the support of family, friends, colleagues, and supporters. Some have supported this for their own continued selfish gain-greater wealth and power. Some are supporting because they have watched their incomes dwindle, thanks to the speculation/corruption/government subsidies and evasion of the likes of the very person they are supporting.They think Trump will “make America great again”.
The problem with all this is that America has never been great. Because a “great” America would not have been built on the bodies of black and brown peoples and those too powerless to fight back. And because the roots of this “great” America are bloody, painful, and not healed, it was easy for a “Trump” to come along and revive hatred and violence, again. Trump encourages exactly what the civil rights movement fought against: hatred, white supremacy, segregation. While Clinton continues a history of economic injustice and corruption necessary to compete in the high-end politics she and all the other presidential capitalist candidates have participated in, in one way or another.
We owe it to ourselves, our ancestors, and those coming behind us, to vote against hate! And then use this greater evidence of hatred and delusion blanketing our country to invite in the deeper narratives that can lead to understanding, repairing, and healing. We can turn this mud of hate into something that moves us beyond hate, and begins to heal this segregated, two Americas that exist: the “haves” and “have nots” which are the outcomes of a history of racism and classism and its segregationist policies and actions.
With clarity and awareness we can begin to dig up these roots of violence and injustice, one root at a time. Individually, we can reflect and send healing energies for those who suffered in the past and currently from hatred and segregation, and its legacy of daily inequality. We can educate ourselves about the real history of inequity and discrimination which built this country and lift the veil of ignorance and lies promulgated in every school in America. If every person with a child in school assured that the history of America being taught (A Different Mirror: A History of Multicultural America, R Takaki; A People’s History of America, H Zinn; Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee, D Brown; Medical Apartheid: The Dark History of Medical Experimentation on Black Americans from Colonial Times to the Present, HA Washington; Eyes on the Prize: America’s Civil Rights Years 1954-1965, J Williams; Long Memory: the Black Experience in America; MF Berry, JW Blassingame) reflected the truth of the roots of this hatred, we could begin to transform hatred. In groups we can also send energies of healing and have discussions about this history, planning events that re-educate and increase awareness and encourage mindful communication that leads to understanding. Groups can lobby their government representatives to enact legislation to repair this history of inequity-decrease tax subsidies to developers and the rich, build affordable housing, guarantee a living wage and hire locally, enact environmental justice policies, fund public schools, recreation centers, libraries, etc. People with this awakened understanding of the roots of hatred and segregation can return to their different institutions and organize to change their policies that discriminate against hiring people of color, people with incarceration/substance abuse records, limit the wages of women and people of color, not subsidize health care access, etc. The structures which are in place, that maintain these institutions of segregation and inequity are upheld by people. These very same people can become aware of the roots of hatred and discrimination by re-educating themselves and their families about this history of America. We can individually and collectively transform this wave of hatred into understanding that can change ourselves, our families, our communities, and our country. Such a movement of awakening to the roots of hatred so as to transform it, now this would actually make America great, for once.