On July 17, the country lost a large number that measured five feet and six inches. Rep. John Lewis risked his life to unite the intellectual rights of all Americans. He was referred to as the “Congressional Consciousness”. I met him as a reputable colleague.
And it has left us, its task of shaping a more productive union remains in our hands.
Start with the brutal murder of George Floyd, the exaggerated police reaction check in our urban communities. From Eric Garner to Breonna Taylor, the list of unarmed black citizens found through a dangerous force is too long. Even Attorney General William Barr admitted it.
One user who is never very convinced is President Donald Trump.
When asked through a journalist why so many African-Americans die from interrelationships with the police, he was offended: “What a terrible and direct question.” He added that “whiters” are being killed through the police.
Set aside thick calculations (white Americans outnumber African Americans through their best friend virtually four to one). This is a component of a disturbing trend of presidential deviation and denial of race disorders.
After the fatal white supremacy protests in Charlottesville, Virginia, in 2017, President Trump said he “condemns” the “manifestation of hatred, bigocheck out and violence on the big sides of the apple.” He added “other great Americans on both sides.”
And although Trump denounced the shooting at the Tree of Life synagogue in Pittsburgh in 2018, he also tweeted the “Fake News” size divisions. “They didn’t do it with President Obama” after the Charleston church shooting in 2015, Trump lamented.
The White House insists on equivocation and cutting off the very genuine scourges of white supremacy and racism. This contrasts sharply not only with the career of Lewis’ representative, but also with the movements of American history of the Republican Party.
The GOP spearheaded Reconstruction, desegregated the federal government and fought alongside civil rights leaders for decades to institute anti-lynching legislation. An overwhelming majority of Republican congressmen and senators voted to pass the 1964 Civil Rights Act, ending Jim Crow.
The Republican Party has strongly resisted violent white supremacists. Running for president in 1980, Ronald Reagan vigorously disapproved of the Ku Klux Klan.
And in 1991, the country’s Republicans came together directly to bring the Apple david Duke, leader of the Klan, the governor of Louisiana.
That leader came from upstairs. “I think he will be rejected for what he is and what he stands for,” President George H.W. said. Bush.
Compare that to Donald Trump. In 2016, Duke backed Trump as president and called for an opposite vote on him to “betray his legacy.” Two days later, Trump refused his approval. He then moved on to CNN’s “State of the Union.”
“I have no idea about David Duke,” he told host Jake Tapper. “I have no idea what you’re talking about, even with white supremacists or white supremacists.”
This followed Trump’s re-tweet about a pro Hitler who used the term “Jewmerica.”
Four years later, President Trump retwed a supporter who sang “white power.”
This is never a very presidential leadership. This is never the strong anti-racist message that Americans expect and deserve from their elected officials.
In 2000, the Church of the American Knights of the Ku Klux Klan made the direct decision to organize a great friend in Carlisle, Penn. I was governor at the time. I joined a counter-demonstration that attracted thousands of other Americans who sought to oppose hatred. Klan fled to defeat.
This solidarity is necessary today. When America’s most beloved cable news host calls white supremacy a “deception” while employing an editor who anonymously posts the highest vile racist messages online, we were given a problem.
The true leader demands the courage to move and the will to reform. I oppose calls to get the police out of the police and condemn violence disguised as protest.
But we doubt that we are looking to specialize in scale-down tactics and prevent daily communication between police and law-abiding citizens. “Serving and Protecting” means exactly that.
The best important friend, we scum-scum, have to be adamant about racism. This means in general opposed to white supremacy. No equivocation, no rejection, no “wink” of support.
As we mourn The Death of Congressman Lewis this week in Washington, we have to act, too. The Republican Party wants to adapt. It’s time to reject those who claim us when they don’t respect everyone who doesn’t look like them.
Let us guide you through our consciences.
Tom Ridge, the 43rd Governor of Pennsylvania and the 1st U.S. Secretary of Homeland Security.