Letter to the Editor: We Need to Fully Rethink Our Whole Universe and Change Rhetoric

Posted

I am writing to you to express my sincere dismay and grief at what has transpired over the last week in this country. It was an assault on our Congress, on our statehouses, on our very democracy. 

One has to wonder what underlies this gross action and our collective response. I believe that "something," that unspoken element, is pure and raw racism. To see the white supremacist groups, the confederate flag, the Qanon slogans invading our house, our most precious house, is beyond understanding. 

I am white. Until Donald Trump was elected, I honestly believed we had mostly tamed racism. How wrong I was. The one and only good thing that has come from this past administration is that it has exposed all the weakness and gaping holes in our system that need to be sealed immediately. 

The final and crowning sadness came when a friend of mine who is high up in U.S. Department of Health and Human Services reported that typically the Secretary of Health and Human Services will send an email to staff when things are happening. For example, “there is a protest here, this road is blocked due to XYZ, etc.” She reviewed the emails sent over the last nine months. Every one relating to Black Lives Matter was titled "Civil Unrest." All communications related to protesting Joe Biden's election, including the ones sent on Jan. 6, were titled "Freedom of Speech Rally" up to and including the moment of the insurrection. 

We need to fully rethink our whole universe, change the rhetoric and words we use that profoundly affect how we see the world. May the next administration bring us more peace, healing and justice following these disastrous events. We need to call things as they are — sedition. 



 

Gina Owen

Randle