Attacking Journalists and Medics. Using chemical weapons on your own population. Targeting Ethnic or Religious minorities for persecution. All of these are War Crimes and Human Rights Violations. They're also the justifications (that I can remember) used for every military action taken by America during my lifetime.
The last week I have seen each of these things happen in real time on the news. Americans in Law Enforcement and Military uniforms attacking people, who until that moment had been mostly peaceful.
I know that people are going to object to this post as being "political." This is not a political post. I'm speaking to something that is at the heart of Quaker faith. Friends have long been called to recognize injustice and work to eliminate it.
I've seen many white friends posting "this isn't the country that I love" on Facebook. I'm am amazed at how sheltered and insulted they must have been. One of them lives in the very village who's police department has harassed me repeatedly over my lifetime. (I may be so pale I sunburn through my clothes, but I'm also poor). The mistreatment and persecution of African Americans has been a constant throughout our history.
Do not make the mistake that George Floyd's murder by police is the sole cause of the current wave of protests... That have turned into police riots almost nightly. The criminally negligent Federal mishandling of the Covid-19 pandemic, every African American killed up to that point, and refusal of so many Americans to acknowledge the problem is also responsible.
I could not watch the video of George Floyd's death the whole way through. A large man in his 40s being held down until unable to breathe. I'm a large man in my 40s with breathing issues... I saw myself being held down and suffocated to death. Contrary to what some people believe, you can still get words out when you can't breathe.
I have two more points to make before I'm done.
I'm a fan of Rev. John Pavlovitz. One thing he has been stating repeatedly the last several years is "If your church is silent right now. You should leave it." The New York Yearly Meeting and Friends General Conference have both made statements condemning the current injustice happening in America. So I know that my church is on the right side.
Finally. NOTHING justifies Human Rights Violations or War Crimes. Period, full stop. If you find yourself defending them. You are wrong.
