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About Portland observer. (Portland, Or.) 1970-current | View Entire Issue (March 25, 2015)
March 25, 2015 Page 9 Career & Education Opinion articles do not necessarily represent the views of the Portland Observer. We welcome reader essays, photos and story ideas. Submit to news@portlandobserver.com. O PINION Staying on the March Right Now Stand up to those wanting to turn back the clock by M arian W right e delMan Fifty years ago I traveled from Missis- sippi to Sel- ma, Ala. to join Dr. Martin Lu- ther King Jr. and thousands of fellow citizens marching the 54 miles to the steps of the state’s capitol in Montgomery. Millions of Americans now know about this march thanks to the movie Selma and the recent 50th anni- versary celebration. Selma was the site of a cou- rageous voting rights campaign by black citizens which was met by brutal Southern Jim Crow law enforcement and citizen vi- olence. The nation was shocked two weeks earlier when John Lewis and Rev. Hosea Williams set out on a nonviolent march with a group of 600 people to- ward Montgomery to demand their right to vote and were bru- tally attacked by lawless state and local law enforcement officials at the Edmund Pettus Bridge. The televised images of “Bloody Sunday” and the sav- age beatings of the march- ers—including Congressman Lewis whose skull was frac- tured—were a pivotal moment in the Civil Rights Movement and in America’s struggle to become America. It provoked the thousands of us (ultimate- ly about 25,000) who came together later to finish the march, safer thanks to Feder- al District Court Judge Frank M. Johnson Jr.’s order that we had a right to peaceful protest and with National Guard protection. And we were buoyed by President Johnson’s March 15, 1965 address calling on Con- gress to pass what became the Voting Rights Act of 1965. In that speech—“The Ameri- can Promise”—President John- son said: “This was the first na- tion in the history of the world to be founded with a purpose. The great phrases of that purpose still sound in every American heart, North and South: ‘All men are created equal’—‘government by consent of the governed’—‘give me liberty or give me death’... Those words are a promise to every citizen that he shall share in the dignity of man... To apply any other test—to deny a man his hopes because of his color or race, his religion or the place of his birth—is not only to do injus- tice, it is to deny America and to dishonor the dead who gave their lives for American freedom” Fifty years later, speaking at the Edmund Pettus Bridge, Pres- ident Obama echoed the same themes: “[Selma is] the manifes- tation of a creed written into our founding documents... These are not just words. They’re a living thing, a call to action, a road- map for citizenship and an insis- tence in the capacity of free men and women to shape our own destiny.” The first Selma march was the Selma marches we are wit- nessing the resurgence of overt law enforcement brutality and injustice in Ferguson, Cleve- land, New York City, and else- where, reminding us how far we still have to go. The continuing protests against unequal justice under the law by those enjoined to protect all of us and all of our children after the deaths of teen- ager Michael Brown, 12-year- old Tamir Rice, and others are a wake-up call about the deeply embedded systemic racism still The televised images of “Bloody Sunday” and the savage beatings of the marchers—in- cluding Congressman Lewis whose skull was fractured—were a pivotal moment in the Civil Rights Movement... planned not only to gain the right to vote but to protest the tragic death of Jimmie Lee Jack- son, a 26-year-old black church deacon and military veteran killed in Marion, Ala. when he, his mother, sister, and 82-year- old grandfather attended an- other nonviolent voting rights demonstration where marchers were brutally attacked by racist Alabama law enforcement offi- cials who broke it up. Jackson was shot and beaten trying to shield his mother from a police nightstick. What a terrible irony that in this year of celebration of alive in America. Each of us has a responsibility to root it out and stop it in its tracks. Each American must remem- ber and help America remember that the fellowship of human be- ings is more important than the fellowship of race and class and gender in a democratic society. Each of us has a personal re- sponsibility to be decent and fair and insist that others be so in our presence. Don’t tell, laugh at, or tolerate racial, ethnic, religious, or gender jokes—or any prac- tices intended to demean rather than enhance another human be- ing. Walk away from them. Stare them down. Make them unac- ceptable in our presence and in our institutions. Through daily moral con- sciousness each of us has a re- sponsibility to counter the pro- liferating voices of racial and moral and ethnic and religious division that are regaining re- spectability over our land. Let’s face up to rather than ignore our growing racial problems which are America’s historical and future Achilles’ heel unless ad- dressed firmly and courageously. And let us all stand up right now to all those in our Con- gress, statehouses, and across our country who are trying to take away and suppress the right to vote and who are refusing to honor the sacrifice of all those who died to gain this fundamen- tal American right. Shame on them and shame on us if we don’t act to insist that Congress renew the Voting Rights Act without a minute’s more delay. And shame on us if we do not stand up to all those who seek to turn the clock of racial progress backwards by denying equal justice under the law for all. We still have so far to go in our march to make Ameri- ca America—but we must march forward and never backwards. Marian Wright Edelman is president of the Children’s De- fense Fund. Security Means More than New and Bigger Guns Risky war business r iChard k irsCh From the Islam- ic State to the streets of Paris, Americans get bombarded daily with fresh reminders of conflicts around the world. What’s harder to figure out is what to do about it. What would actually make us safer? Some politicians urge knee- jerk reactions. Spend more on the Pentagon, they say. But one thing’s clear after years of over-relying on military force: It can actually make us less secure. You don’t have to take my word for it. When journalist Bob Schief- fer asked recently if he had re- grets about invading Iraq, for- by mer President George W. Bush lamented that “a violent group of peo- ple have risen — risen up again.” Bush can find one of the culprits for this sad development by looking in the mirror. Without that invasion and the sectarian chaos it unleashed, there would be no Islamic State (ISIS). What will it take for the U.S. govern- ment to grasp that short-term military solutions create long- term crises? Sadly, our leaders remain hooked on military “solutions,” which too often make the world more dangerous. In fact, Pres- ident Barack Obama’s 2016 funding request for the Penta- gon’s base budget is the biggest in U.S. history. Total military expenditures, including nuclear weapons and war spending, gobble up well over half of the nation’s discre- tionary budget — even as we continue to draw down troops from Afghanistan. Much of that budget growth funds weapons systems unsuited to today’s bat- tlefields. Washington’s spending billions to pad the pockets of Pentagon industry insiders who reap record profits while doing little to enhance national secu- rity. The American people must demand a new definition of security — both at home and abroad — that means more than new and bigger guns. In the Middle East, that means diplomatically engaging coun- tries directly threatened by the Islamic State. It also means tak- ing common sense steps — like providing economic and human- itarian assistance — to address the “ISIS crisis” in a way that creates friends, not enemies. “What matters more to Ameri- can security?” Sen. Chris Murphy asked when funding for food as- sistance for Syrian refugees was running out. “One day of missiles being fired at ISIS inside Syria? Or being able to feed hundreds of thousands of hungry refugees, who, if they don’t get a square meal…are going to turn to ISIS?” Sadly, our leaders are better at finding money for weapons than for food. With budget priorities like that, we’ve got problems back home, too. Public invest- ment in America’s future — on roads, schools, and scientific research — is at historic lows. And the government has slashed spending on a wide range of vi- tal programs that provide securi- ty and opportunity for American families since 2010. Last year, domestic discre- tionary spending fell by some $15 billion, while the Pentagon used its massive slush fund — the Overseas Contingency Oper- ations account — to escape any significant cuts at all. As Congress ponders the federal budget, it must focus on what will really make our families more secure. Reining in wasteful Pentagon spending is one great way to get started. But cutting the security of Amer- icans at home — including our education, health care, retire- ment, and child care — hits us where we live. Richard Kirsch is a senior fellow at the Roosevelt Institute and the author of Fighting for Our Health: The Epic Battle to Make Health Care a Right in the United States.
