And yet, every America is involved in politics! Taxes, in part, paid for the war in Iraq, It's still paying for the destruction of land and resources, homes and wedding receptions were women and children reside, most with no interest in finding themselves dead for sleeping or for marrying someone. There are children here in the US with no interest in going to bed having only drank juice and a slice of bread, if they are lucky. There are children here in the US with no interest in playing on ground that is covered in shards of glass.
And that's all "politics" as it is politically determined as to what group of people are granted privilege and what other groups are understood to be less than, and what others are designated as "immigrant" in a country of immigrants. How many have died within US borders and without in the time it takes for someone to inform me, always smugly, that they had no interests in keeping up with politics? Many of these dead were annihilated in the name of the people, that is, the American people, with made-in-America weapons sold to the Saudi or Israeli governments? The no-involvement-with-politics American paid for the murder of someone's husband, wife, or child. Some school children in Palestine or Yemen.
Knowing a little something about American imperialism is equivalent to knowing about the self. Sitting one day among expatriate faculty from Nigeria, I was asked why I was "picking on Saddam Hussein." As a Black American, I tried to defend myself, but I understood. You are the history of your nation!.
There should be no excuse if you are alive.
I was "alive" when Barbara Lee cast the only voted against the Iraqi war; I was "alive" when General Powell gave that speech at the UN; and I was "alive" when the American WMDs lit up the Iraqi night. But I was "alive" and present when astronaut Alan Shepard travels to space, the first human to do so. I was "alive" and present when JFK was assassinated, followed by Rev. Martin L. King and RFK. I was "alive" and present for the police killing of Fred Hampton and Mark Clark.
To relinquish responsibility for what happens in "the name of the people," is to already burden those victims of the history of American violence, those already demonized as "leftists" or "enemy" and to continue fueling that history of violence.
On January 2, 2021, I watched in real time as a few at first become hundreds assemble and then break into the Capitol in Washington DC. Brandishing clubs, sticks, guns, many are men, but there are women among them. Many have Trump flags and Confederate flags. As this increasingly violent crowd break windows and push beyond police enforcement, overturning furniture, a shout goes up: they want the Vice President for their makeshift gallow. They want to put a bullet in the House Speaker's head!
As a Black American, I can identify with the disorientation and terror experienced by Congressional members such as Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez or Rashida Tlaib. Having known insurrectionists historically or personally, Black Americans could imagine the danger these and other Congressional members of color faced in those hours as the angry mob stormed the Capitol and roamed the hallways. Groups of them had already used clubs to serious injure police. One police died the following day after his head was bashed in by a madden white male wielding a fire extinguisher.
Those Americans who have informed me that they don't get involved in politics would be baffled if I, in turn, informed them that any good totalitarian want-to-be-dictator would love the opportunity to control a nation of like-minded people. Along with the vanguard of insurrections like those folks who showed in after organizing themselves around the battle cry of their want-to-be-despot in the White House at the time!
According to a report in The Atlantic , a good many of the insurrectionists, average age, 40-years old, committed "acts of political violence." This wasn't an "exercise in vandalism or trespassing amid a disorderly protest." There were the Proud Boys, Oath Keepers, and Three Percenters, but, according to the report, some "89 % had no apparent affiliation with "militia organizations. They were Americans.
A good many of Americans share in the same concerns that the country is open to too many immigrants and too many Blacks are too visible. Too many Muslims. Too many Latinx. Too many protesting Indigenous people.
Only 9% of these insurrections were unemployment, and most didn't come from the "deep-red strongholds" either. "They worked as CEOs, shop owners, and doctors, lawyers, IT specialists, and accountants."
A couple of years ago, when some Americans were pulling for Supreme Court Judge, Ruth Bader Ginsburg to live, at least beyond the former president's term in office, I remember talking with a postal worker, mentioning Ginsburg"
Who?
RBG!
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