What do I tell them? Part 2

“Maybe it’s time to get uncomfortable…”

– Amber Ruffin, comedy writer, African American

(continued...)

What about crime…

Some of my friends and segments of the media say, “Look at that wanton looting of those protesters. Store windows are broken, people stealing with impunity. Some loading cars with the merchandise they have taken. What about that?” They are right. There is no justification for unrestrained criminal behavior. But does that behavior represent the majority of African Americans and others, protesting injustice? Do we think that all protesters are latent thieves just waiting to steal and plunder? That is a commentary on ourselves, not the protesters.

What about white-collar crime? Where millions of dollars are stolen with little punishment. What about CEOs that run companies and financial institutions whose greed and avarice ruin people's lives. Where is that balance?

When people see this, no wonder they ask about the meaning of justice.

What about an American health care system that is so predatory, a twenty-minute visit to an emergency room, resulting in minor treatment, can cost $15,000 or more. A place where unnecessary tests are run under the guise of protocol but meant solely to increase revenue.  What about privatized emergency medical helicopter airlifts, where brief air-time can cost more than $100,000, followed by staggering hospitalization bills. For patients, there is little recourse. Is this not criminal?

When will leaders of character remove the safe harbors that permit this predation? Where is the justice here?

What about drug companies that without conscience provide millions of addictive drugs to people in chronic pain, knowing they are the inappropriate treatment? What about the pharmacies and healthcare providers who are complicit? What about the hundreds of thousands of decimated lives overtaken by addiction? What is the cost to society, and where is the justice for this?

What about the sacred cow televangelists? Joyce Meyer, T.D. Jakes, Franklin Graham, Creflo Dollar, Joel Osteen, Benny Hinn, Pat Robertson, Kenneth and Gloria Copeland…many of whom live lives of luxury, taking advantage of the poor. The underprivileged send money, desperately ‘false hoping’ for a better day. The gospel of prosperity?  Yes…for them! These people own and often brag about their ‘God approved’ success...a level of affluence filled with astronomically expensive homes, private jets, and lifestyles beyond the pale.  All of this wealth obtained on the back of an itinerate preaching carpenter from Galilee of whom it is written, “The foxes have holes and the birds of the air have nests, but the son of man has nowhere to lay his head.” (Luk 9:58) Where is the outrage? Where is the justice? Not for profit status? For shame!

Is this too subtle? 

Need I write about the Trail of Tears – the decimation, destruction, subjugation, and murder of Native American Tribes so that we might have weekend barbecues and drink a little beer on family outings and vacation in our National Parks – taken with prejudice from these peoples. Treaties broken, whole families moved to lands foreign…lives and cultures systematically destroyed…

Justice? Despite unrestrained disregard by those who do, and have done these things, eventually, as we are seeing in the events of these days, there is a price. 

Maybe I’m naïve, too pollyannish, and don’t really get it. But I get it as much as a white man can. As much as one who was daily nurtured by parents who believed in a loving God and social justice. A narrative pervasive from my youth; carried to this day in sacred trust.

(to be continued...)