Handling extremism

By Dr. E. Faye Williams
TriceEdneyWire.com Columnist

At one time we could confidently turn to the U.S. Supreme Court for relief from extremist behavior that attempted to take away rights we already had or rights we were fighting to achieve. Today, unfortunately, we experience extremism in so many areas of our lives.

Our forever President Barack and First Lady Michelle Obama are sounding the alarm and have asked all of us to join with activists who’ve been sounding the alarm on extremism for years. Unfortunately, many never even dreamed racism and all the other negative isms would ever get as bad as they are today!

We thought Donald Trump, Ronald DeSantis, and a big chunk of the MAGA crowd were just a joke. It must be clear now, they are for real, and people we thought were semi-sensible have come down front to prove we were wrong. Many of them have spent years building their strength to do damage to us in many ways. I don’t think most of us ever thought we would witness a leader in the White House (Donald Trump) would work so hard to do harm to us – and worse still that there would be such a large group of people even running to become president – with the same ideas and plans as Trump. Some of them have already served in some capacity as a leader in our nation and are supporting the same turmoil that has been created by their criminal leader!

Can you even imagine a Black leader being convicted or having as many serious indictments as Trump who would still be walking the streets freely so as to have time to personally push his day of reckoning beyond reach because the discovery of his continuing criminal behavior leaves him free to keep on upsetting any kind of belief that he will ever pay for the people’s lives his behavior has already ruined?

I talk with many people who’ve lost faith that Trump will ever pay for his thuggish behavior. If you think there’s any hope we will ever be able to head off a bunch of local and state Trumps, we’ve got to take an interest and action in heading off the destruction of our local community.

We must attend our city council, school board, county council, and political party meetings. We can’t fight the extremism that’s growing all around us by waiting for somebody else to handle things. We must stand up and help to fight this extremism.

Extremists want to cancel true African-American history, fair voting rights, and rights to be educated at certain universities. Teachers are being fired. Books have been banned. Affirmative action rights to correct past wrongs are canceled, and for women, our right to choose what happens with our bodies – all of that has happened just over the past few months. Just think about what will happen in the coming years with any one of the current presidential candidates challenging President Joe Biden who is trying his best to put us back on a sensible course to the things our nation professes to stand for.

We have people we once thought to be friends and to have a concern about our human rights now toying with giving aid and comfort to the enemies of our people. Whether or not they carry out their dangerous plans, we need to remind them of the negative impact their present course of actions will have on the 2024 presidential, senatorial, and House results. You know who they are. As much as Dr. Cornell West has usually been on the right side of issues, we question his intention now. Sen. Joe Mansion has always been suspect and has failed us at crucial times. I don’t think any of us can explain Joe Kennedy – so spread the news when somebody figures it out!

This article originally published in the August 7, 2023 print edition of The Louisiana Weekly newspaper.