The painting “Washington Crossing the Delaware” by Emanuel Leutze is recreated with African Americans wearing masks and holding signs that protest police brutality. Clarke Central High School Athletic Director Dr. Jon Ward believes that the United States needs to work on upholding its promise of justice for all. Illustration by Lillian Sams
Some say our nation’s fight for independence began on March 5, 1770 — the day five citizens of Boston were killed by the British Redcoats during a confrontation between an assembled crowd and soldiers deployed to maintain order. The deaths heightened the tension in Boston and fueled the events that inevitably led to the shot heard around the world some five years later at Lexington and Concord.
Upon successfully achieving independence from Great Britain, our founding fathers believed the freedom to assemble was so essential to liberty it was placed in the First Amendment of the US Constitution alongside the freedoms of speech, religion, press and petition.
So here we are, two centuries later. The streets of our nation’s cities are ripe with protesters dismayed and angered over the abuse of power wielded by those who are sworn to serve and protect us.
“The streets of our nation’s cities are ripe with protesters dismayed and angered over the abuse of power wielded by those who are sworn to serve and protect us. ”
The death of George Floyd reignited calls for law enforcement agencies to be held accountable for their disparagingly harsh and abusive treatment of African Americans. In a nation conceived on the promise of justice for all, our justice system and its agents continually administer justice with systemic prejudice.
The protests have rocked the fabric of our society and pulled back the curtain on a system that must be repaired. At times the protests have crossed the line of peaceable assembly and delved into riots, looting and destruction. These actions are wrong and will not lead to solutions.
However, the vast majority of the protests are peaceful and appropriately exercise rights guaranteed by the Constitution. We have witnessed multitudes pleading for our nation to realize that all people, regardless of race, deserve the equal application of justice.
The President, whose job description is to preserve, protect and defend our Constitution, has ordered the use of military troops to prevent US citizens from exercising their rights, brazenly demanded governors to use force to extinguish assemblies, and touted long term imprisonment as an apt tool to discourage protesters. There have been several instances in which police have responded to protests with aggression and force. Quelling a protest of the excessive use of force by the police with the use of excessive force by the police — a brutal irony.
Our nation is a great experiment — people of countless origins and beliefs united by the transient quest of life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. We are to pursue these quests with certain guarantees, including the freedom of speech and assembly. Ask yourself how would the President’s desire to subdue protests and punish those assembled be perceived in eighteenth-century Boston. I believe his actions would be seen more in line with the Crown than the Sons of Liberty. Disturbing indeed.
“Our nation is a great experiment — people of countless origins and beliefs united by the transient quest of life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.”
