The Promise

Tuesday, June 29th,

Today would have been the 70th wedding anniversary of my parents, had they both lived.

I was born exactly one year and 2 days later, on July 1st, and I can only imagine the joy my parents (particularly my father) experienced at my arrival, since he was the only one of his 5 brothers and sisters who had not had any children by their mid-forties.

They both had immigrated from different lands to this country, for the promise of opportunities and a better life. I'm sure they had heard the stories of vicious, violent racial segregation which was the way of life, primarily in the South, but that did not deter them from coming because they believed that with God's providence and help, they would be able to overcome anything and everything. By coming to New York they avoided much of the vilest discrimination, but still had to deal with whatever version existed 'up North', in New York.

I'm sure they did not know all of the history of this country when they came, and I'm also sure had they known, it wouldn't have deterred them anyway, since the country offered so much promise compared to most other places. This 'promise' still exists as it did then, but it consistently fails to be realized because of this country's insane, racist, imperialist, 'manifest destiny' mindset.

As I'm writing this, I'm listening to the radio in the background, and hearing that we've just lost the life of another American soldier in Afghanistan - 51 in the month of June, so far. And then I hear that we are also celebrating the anniversary of our excursion in Korea, where we lost 49,000 soldiers. Later on today, doubtlessly I will hear about more losses of life in Iraq and wherever else we have chosen to invade preemptively.

The amazing thing is that so many whites, even well-meaning progressives, have delusionally accepted this insane foreign policy as just a benign attempt to “bring democracy to help 'them'...the Iraqis and the Afghans and...”

Happily, I know of few blacks who have deluded themselves that we are doing this to help 'them' while killing them in the process as Bush criminally did, first in Afghanistan then in Iraq, and which Obama continues to do in both places and justifies as “ a war of necessity” and being “essential to our national interests”.

Meanwhile our capital resources are being squandered in these war waste-holes, our economy is in shambles, our unemployment is in double-digits, our infrastructure continues to go unattended, the corporate assassins continue to befoul the earth and oceans as BP is doing in their oil gusher in the gulf of Mexico disaster. And through all this, the Repugnants who call themselves Republicans, treasonously resists and obstructs any and all measures that the President offers as a solution to these horrific problems.

Welcome to America with it's toxic stew of racist teapartyers, rednecks, idealists, apologists, congressional whores, pimping lobbyists, regressive activist judges, fundamentalist religious pharisees, warmongers, zionists, white supremacists – all standing in the way and trying to thwart 'the promise' that my parents envisioned and sought for themselves and for my sisters and me.

What keeps me hopeful, is the same promise that my parents sought and saw here in America. What gives me the most hope is the knowledge that God, my Creator, has the final say on what happens in America and in every other land on earth.

This is His promise – that His Will, will be done on Earth as it is in Heaven...Amen.