Last month, I stood on the eastside steps of the historic Tarrant County Courthouse, a place I’ve long known was the symbol of justice in my hometown of Fort Worth – a site where I played on the lawn as a child.
When I stood in the chilly, drizzly weather, addressing a crowd who’d come to protest the president’s decision to recognize Jerusalem as the capital of Israel, I was reminded of those playful days on the courthouse square.
What I remembered was that back in those days, inside that beautiful majestic building, were separate water fountains for “White” and “Colored”; separate restrooms (the “Colored” men’s restroom was in the basement in the janitors’ closet); and perhaps the greatest tragic irony was that back then the snack bars in public buildings were run by blind people who didn’t allow black people to eat at the counter.
As I told demonstrators that Saturday afternoon, all this was to say that I realized a long time ago that if there were separate water fountains and restrooms and places to eat in that grand old building, then there must also be a separate justice for people who looked like me.
That brings me to the point of that important and powerful demonstration in December, as people of various ethnicities and religions and national origins gathered to stand in solidarity with the Palestinian people and oppressed people all over the world.
My protest speech was brief because, as I told the demonstrators, I could sum up my opposition to the president’s decision in one word: WRONG . . . WRONG . . . WRONG!
I could use another one word: UNJUST.
Or, one other: BIGOTED.
The decision by this administration to break with a 70-year-old policy and bow down to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is an egregious one that is steeped in political bigotry – aimed to continue to stoke the fires of discord in order to appease a prejudiced base of right-wing zealots in Israel and the U. S.
In the process, we have offended the Palestinian people, seriously impeded any possibility of a peace accord and inflamed the entire Middle East. We made matters worse when our ambassador to the United Nations, announcing “we are taking names,” threatened other sovereign nations (friend and foe alike) that the United States would somehow retaliate if they didn’t support our position. How sad. Thank God those countries did not bow down and voted to repudiate the idiotic action by our government.
As I said at the courthouse demonstration, I stand with oppressed people everywhere. And, I commend and praise those Israelis who reject their government’s apartheid policies and actions.
I concluded my remarks by saying, “That is why I stand here today to oppose those who would continue to inflict injustice on a people and then ask them and us to be satisfied with that decision.
No, we will not be satisfied . . . we cannot be satisfied until . . . (as Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. said that hot summer day in 1963, paraphrasing the Prophet Amos): “. . . until justice rolls down like waters, and righteousness like a mighty stream.”
Say, “Amen,” somebody.
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