I talked to both of my kids over the weekend about 9/11. They are 9 and 13 years old. I asked them what they had learned about what happened. My youngest said “That’s when the towers fell.”
We had a good discussion about it. While it’s true that the towers fell, those words don’t do an adequate job of communicating what happened. They didn’t just fall. They were violently hit, burned and demolished. People were killed and enemies of America tried to harm our financial system and our way of life. I challenged my daughter to speak truthfully about important things like this and not sugar coat the words.
Over the past year and a half, far too many things have been sugar coated and misrepresented. We need to clearly, honestly and accurately communicate about them.
For example, the “mostly peaceful protests” of BLM and Antifa were in fact riots. There was burning, looting and violence. Call it what it was.
There were many voting irregularities in the last election. There were rule changes made by the judicial system instead of the legislative bodies. Less secure voting methods were implemented as emergency measures, but those that want to go back to more secure voting measures from the recent past are called “racists!” We need to call this what it is.
The news vendors (I read this term in H. G. Wells “The War of the Worlds” and it is so fitting!) have covered for their party and attacked the opposing party. They have not been reporting the truth, just selling their distortion of it. We need to call it what it really is.
Social media and big tech companies have suppressed the truth and silenced messages they don’t want to be shared. Call it what it is!
Critical race theory (Tim Pool calls it “Critical Race Applied Principles”) is not anti-racism. It is racism and doesn’t belong anywhere near our schools. The terms “white privilege” or “white fragility” judge people and their character based on the color of their skin. They are racist terms. Call them and the people that use them what they are.
The FBI announced that there was no evidence of collusion for the events of January 6th. The so-called “insurrection” had no weapons, no collusion and no attempted coup. It was not an insurrection. Call it what it was. At most it was a riot. The people being held for months, often in solitary confinement are still there even after the FBI saying there was no collusion. Antifa and BLM types that burned buildings and assaulted people mostly had their charges dropped or minimized. Why does one side get treated like average citizens and the other like enemies of the state? If the Trump supporters are being held as insurrectionists when obviously no insurrection took place, wouldn’t it be more accurate to call them political prisoners? We don’t treat trespassers like this and for the previous year we didn’t treat rioters that way. If they aren’t political prisoners, let’s find the right term and call it what it is. Shout it from the rooftops!
Now is the time to speak up. We need a call to words. God help us all if we don’t speak or are silenced. That only leaves the worst options left on the table.
Am I saying there aren’t any actions for us to take? By no means. But our actions will only be described in the worst possible way unless we find our voice to go along with those actions. We are NOT racists. Our words are NOT violence. We are NOT insurrectionists nor terrorists. We have to speak up as we do the work that needs to be done.