Let us be reminded that before there is a final solution, there must be a first solution, a second one, even a third. The move toward a final solution is not a jump. It takes one step, then another, then another.
Toni Morrison
I couldn’t but help feel a loss of hope this week. The discovery of over 55 dead civilians buried by retreating Russian troops in a mass grave in Bucha, Ukraine. Ukrainian authorities said that the grave included the bodies of two small children, and forensic evidence showed that the victims were “shot, set on fire, and crushed by tractors. Putin’s brutal war in Ukraine has claimed thousands of innocents, reduced entire cities to rubble, forced millions to flee their homes, and in the process has threatened the security of NATO and upset the global economy.
The shooting of a 26-year-old Black man on April 4 by a police officer during a traffic stop in Grand Rapids Michigan. Dashcam video of the incident showed the officer pinning Lyoya down to the ground, his knee on his back, and then grabbing his gun and shooting Lyoya fatally in the back of the head. The wounding of 23 people on a subway train in Brooklyn, and the endemic tragedy of school shootings that have become the norm in our culture of “gun rights” and “don’t tread on me.”
On Thursday, Florida Governor Rick DeSantis signed into law a 15-week ban on abortions, even in cases of rape and incest. This follows similar abortion bans and restrictions passed in Texas, Wyoming, Oklahoma, North Dakota, and Kentucky. These and 16 other states have not bothered to wait to see if the Supreme Court overturns or severely cripples weaken Roe v. Wade.
Republican lawmakers in seven states introduced at least nine bills this year that target trans and nonbinary youths, restricting their ability to participate in sports, use bathrooms, and the right to receive gender-affirming health care. The passage of Florida’s “Don’t Say Gay” bill, which bans teaching about sexual orientation and gender identity in kindergarten through third grade.
What is most alarming is that the bills mentioned above contradict what most Americans want. According to the Pew Research Institute, 59% of Americans support abortion rights, 3/4 of Americans support LGBTQ rights, 57% of Americans support voting rights, 53% of Americans suport stricter gun laws, and 72% of Americans think that the nation should seek alternatives to oil and gas in an effort to curb climate change. It seems that lawmakers are ignoring the majority of Americans.
We are witnessing an attack on voting rights, climate change, gerrymandering, the continued allegations of a stolen presidency, and the deplorable treatment of a Supreme Court nominee by GOP legislators who showed their true racist colors. Each day there are new revelations of corruption and deceit committed by lawmakers in all three branches of government leading up to and after the January 6th assault on the Capital. Then there’s COVID-19, which continues to claim lives while it mutates into variants, one of which is thought to be even more infectious than the current strains of Omicron. And on top of it all, the transformation of our nation into a failed Democracy plagued by division, distrust, and partisanship.
The biggest question I have is what can we do to preserve what we have left of our Democracy? What can we do as global citizens to fight against the tyranny of dictators whose only legacy is war and needless suffering?
There are countless problems in the world, but perhaps the first step in reaching a solution is to participate in government and preserve the right to vote.
In a January blog post, former President Barack Obama put it plainly: “Our democracy isn’t a given. It isn’t self-executing. We, as citizens, have to nurture and tend it. We have to work at it. And in that task, we have to vigilantly preserve and protect our most basic tool of self-government, which is the right to vote.
If we as Americans make an effort to get involved in our political system, to support and vote for candidates who are dedicated to representing us, rather than lobbyists, fringe groups, corporations, oligarchs, or foreign powers, we may have a chance. But we have to work at it.