Over the next week and a half, the political elite of both major parties will evolve themselves from the primaries to the general election. Afterward, the candidates will ready themselves for battle in the gym we call America, and the two political parties will find themselves, according to The New York Times, $150 million in debt to the private entities (gym leaders) that will write checks for the conventions this year — all the more reason for our representatives to prioritize donors over constituents.
While the festivities transpire — yes, including the tidal wave of balloons (How do they get that many balloons? Do the two parties hire the guy from “Up”?) — a harsh truth will remain.
The American people are suffering, stuck between a rock of fear and a hard place of inaction. The fear? After a week of unjust killings by police, we awoke Sunday morning to an unjust killing of police: A lone ex-marine, possibly outraged by Alton Sterling’s death, fatally shot down three Baton Rouge officers and injured three others. As if that weren’t enough, Sunday marked the two-year anniversary of Eric Garner’s death.
The inaction? Congress brought down the major bills proposed after the Orlando massacre and House Democrats’ subsequent sit-in. Even then, groups as liberal as the American Civil Liberties Union took issue with Democrats’ proposals, calling out the terror watchlist provisions as “error prone” and “unfair.”
Thus far, demonstrators, protesters and grassroots organizers across the country are the true sources of action we’ve seen, as well as officers like Baton Rouge police officer Montrell Jackson, who took to Facebook to tell his community, “Please don’t let hate infect your heart. This city MUST and WILL get better. I’m working in these streets so any protesters, officers, friends, family, or whoever, if you see me and need a hug or want to say a prayer. I got you.” And yet, this genuine soul was taken from us Sunday morning.
This country desperately needs a two-fold consensus: one among we the people, and another between us and our elected leaders. We can argue until we’re blue in the face over gun regulations, but until we agree on basic values, we’ll be at a loss. You can support black lives and blue lives all the same while fighting institutionalized racism and police brutality. Those two positions aren’t mutually exclusive: That’s where justice resides.
Now, through social media, we can grow our awareness and capacity to act on these racial tensions and acts of violence. Of course, with a growing awareness comes heightened emotions and fears, but we have an opportunity for change: hence the dozens of demonstrations across this country between two weekends. The next step is our leadership, such as the orchestrators of these conventions.
As we highlighted in a May editorial, the host committee of the Democrats’ convention includes ardent opponents of net neutrality, pro-frackers and major donors who contribute “huge” sums of money to both Democratic and GOP congressional elections alike (which says wonders for who our representatives actually represent).
The last thing you could reasonably expect from this group is genuine action on racial and police-community tensions; whatever happens with the police or Black America, their investments and interests are safe.
Our best hope is that somewhere amidst the sea of donors, false promises and balloons (Seriously, have you seen the pictures? It’s almost an offensive amount of balloons: Surely they trigger our nation’s clowns.) there’s a group of leaders willing to take one for the team on behalf of the people. Otherwise, our country is set to crash harder than a “Pokemon Go” server.
