To America

To America

The ultimate tragedy is not the oppression and cruelty by the bad people

but the silence over that by the good people. 

—Martin Luther King, Jr. 

Let us not be lynchers, friends. Nor watch without shouting Stop. For won’t Peter be having words with us just when it will matter most?

Good people, let us not, then, 

lynch again.

And let’s not cheer for those who cheer on lynchers or their symbols (that battle flag does call for violence) whether police, the press, politicians, a president, the courts, columnists, other commentators like neighbors, friends, family, or favorite screen or radio hosts.

Let’s rather cheer for people who 

neither lynch nor cheer for those who do.

As for those who don’t even stop to think of saying something like Stop: Since silence is complicity, what does that make them? Well, that is for good people to decide, once we decide to think about it. If we decide to think about it. When Peter makes us think about it at the pearly gates. 

The lynched can’t say what he’ll say—although, 

given where they must be today, I do believe they know. 

You do not think them innocent? But they were never charged. We’re innocent till proven not.

Suspicion is not proof, you know. 

Compare and contrast below: 

1.) Embezzlers of billions and mass murderers get free room and board for years; 

the lynched get neither trial nor appeal—

nor a final meal. 

2.) Remember the Boston Tea Party? Not one guilty “brave” was hanged. 

Today, for street sales of tobacco, we

lynch with impunity.

Why? 

Who?