Imagine a world

By Dr. E. Faye Williams, Esq
TriceEdneyWire.com Columnist

We have an impeached president in our country because he has done so much destruction to our country. He has even destroyed who others believe we are! Many Americans have lost faith in who we once thought we were. I’ve heard Americans talk about being embarrassed to travel abroad because they have no way to defend what has happened to our country. Now, as a result of the extreme actions taken by the man in the White House, we have the added reason of fear to travel abroad. Once we’re identified as Americans, we are fair game to those who want pay back from America for what the occupant in the White House has done without a logical explanation.

The administration held a briefing to explain why the occupant of the White House started the ground work for a war without authorization from Congress. Even our top military officials who stood behind Trump as he tried to justify ordering the killing, it was obvious they were thinking about the Beatles’ song “Imagine A World” with another Commander-in-Chief.

Rep. Senator Mike Lee who is definitely not known as one who would likely vote for anything with which I agree, but Wednesday, he came out of the briefing meeting that was intended to justify killing Major General Qasem Soleimani at this time while in Iraq, not in Iran, speaking in angry words and proclaiming it to be the worst military briefing he’d heard since coming to Congress! Senator Rand Paul stood with him before Democratic Senators began their assessment.

Democratic Senators described the Administration’s explanation as “Incredibly without facts, deeply concerning, unacceptably vague, thin on facts, unacceptable and concerning, deeply dissatisfying” and the descriptions went on and on.

With that kind of criticism, I’m reminded of former Secretary of State John Kerry’s question when he asked, “How do you ask a man to be the last man to die for a mistake?” So many voices today indicate that no matter how badly we think of Iran or its dead General, Secretary Kerry said, “Trump’s unilateral actions have brought us to a point where we are at greater risk than we had before killing Iran’s General. Now there is no way at all the world and the U.S. are safer with the steps Trump has taken.”

Vice President Mike Pence’s speech on this matter was mysteriously cancelled! Now I am wondering what he would have said.

I’m a Dick Gregory disciple which says I’m anti-war. I know when you identify as anti-war, you’re called some awful names by those whom I suppose would rather be “pro-war!” I am unapologetically pro-peace. Some of us have paid dearly for being pro-peace. In April of 1980, my good friend Dick Gregory went to Iran in an effort to protest the Iranian hostage situation. He did it while reducing his meals to water and fruit juice and vowed to do it until the hostage situation was resolved peacefully. He returned to the United States on September 9, 1980. He never stopped protesting injustices. In September of 1968 he went to Marquette University and spoke on behalf of anti-war activists who’d seized and burned draft cards from a Selective Service office in downtown Milwaukee. In the late 60’s, he became friends with John Lennon and together Dick Gregory and he made an anti- war anthem called “Give Peace A Chance.” Trump has violated that. War is still not the answer. We are less safe as we have a president who seems determined to rule by war. We’re not safe so long as Trump is in the White House continuing to act irrationally. Let us “Imagine A World” without him.

This article originally published in the January 20, 2019 print edition of The Louisiana Weekly newspaper.