The Premature Call for Peace and Unity in America Won't Happen Anytime Soon

Republicans responsible for sedition now want ‘unity’.

The Washington Post

It’s only been a week since a violent mob of hundreds of American citizens proudly ransacked the US Capitol. Five lives were lost and as of today, less than 100 have been arrested with many more expected.

And already there are urgent calls for peace and unity in America. For me, the audacity of such calls is mind-boggling. The timing is way off. The calls are premature. And because they are, it’s a futile request. Calls for peace and unity right now come across as arrogant, offensive, and at minimum, disingenuous.

I liken it to the desperate pleas of a repeat abuser. One who shortly after a violent episode begins to hastily beg their victim for forgiveness. Along with a selfish request to swiftly return back to the dysfunction they have learned to accept as normal. Usually along with the request to forgive is also the promise it will never happen again.

But not without first inferring that if the victim had not done what they did. The abuse never would have occurred in the first place. And it matters not whether the abuse is physical, mental, emotional, or a mixture. It is always a vicious cycle of continual lies, irrational thinking, and empty promises.

Peace and Unity Without Consequences and Retribution is a No-Go

This is why premature calls for peace and unity are futile. America has been here before. When it comes to the issues of racism and white supremacy. America’s history reveals a similar cycle of abuse towards many of its own citizens.

Black and Brown people in America have been repeat victims in a country with a solid track record of abuse at the hands of racism and white supremacy. What occurred on January 6th is simply the most recent abusive attack. It happened to be televised and shared all over social media, and thus all over the world. Hidden abuse is one thing. But exposed abuse is a “horse of a different color”.

Although, as I stated earlier. Some arrests have been made, and many more are expected. It is still too soon to make calls for peace and unity. And here are a couple of reasons why:

The base requirements for peace and unity must include effective large-scaled consequences that have the fortitude to crumble established racist systems in America.

There also must be some kind of agreed-upon retributive justice for the centuries of abuse resulting from the hundreds of years of racism and white supremacy that has been allowed to continue and thrive.

There can be no denying of the progress America has made, and how far we’ve come as a country. However, the number of empty promises to make amends for past failings continue to call out for action. It is as if they are underground factions that refuse to remain dormant. Instead, in their own time with no formal welcome. They erupt for all the world to see. Breaking through the surface of the greatness of which America purports.

It’s Time We Nip Racism and White Supremacy in the Bud

“The time is always right to do what is right.”

Martin Luther King Jr.

It’s time for Ameria to do better in regards to confronting and eradicating racism and white supremacy. It’s time we get to the very root of our woundedness and not turn away from the stench of the centuries of rot.

If America is ever going to be healed. It must be done in the right order. And calls for peace and unity right now is the wrong order. It’s essentially like putting the cart before the horse. There is much more we must overcome before discussions about peace and unity are palatable.

The fact is, we will never be able to “unsee” what we saw on January 6, 2021. The activities of the day (and potentially future days by all accounts) will forever be unsettling events in American history. But perhaps being unsettled is exactly what we need. Comfort for a few American citizens at the expense of others is a status quo America has been settled on for much too long.

Conclusion

Yet, here we find ourselves again. The current civil and political unrest presenting another opportunity for us to do better. As a nation, we are being beckoned once again to “do what is right”.

And although calls for peace and unity are premature right now. It doesn’t mean there is nothing else we can do. Quite the contrary. There is much we can do in our efforts to continue to forge the path towards a more perfect union for all Americans.

Yes. It will be hard (but we can do hard things). And it will take time (but we have time). We, the citizens of the United States of America can do it. Not all of us (because not all of us will agree). But many of us. Millions of us. We can choose to work together for the greater good of all despite the multitude of boundaries that divide us.

I close with the words of Maya Angelou, an American poet, memoirist, and civil rights activist who reminds us of who we are in her poem Human Family:

I note the obvious differences

between each sort and type,

but we are more alike, my friends,

than we are unalike.

We are more alike, my friends,

than we are unalike.

We are more alike, my friends,

than we are unalike.

What do you think?

Until the next time…

Much Love & Peace,

CarlaDee

P.S.

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Click below to read my story The Chasm in Our Democracy Part 2; My Thoughts about January 6, 2021