Hate seems to have taken over!

By Dr. E. Faye Williams
TriceEdneyWire.com Columnist

I long for the days when we had hope that things were getting better in our country—especially on women’s rights, extinguishing racism against people of African descent, improving the Congress by electing an increasing number of non-white people (especially people of Hispanic, Asian and African descent, as well as a Native sister being in charge of the Department of Interior, with several other women being Secretaries of Agencies, and were we excited when Supreme Court Judge Ketanji Brown-Jackson came along!

We cheered that Barack Obama could be elected by people of all races and backgrounds to become President of the United States of America. We were proud of the fact that Hillary Clinton (but for our crazy electoral college rule) would have been our first female President!

We have wannabe President again Donald Trump and Vice-Presidential wannabe Vance to thank for the hate launched on the Haitian community of Springfield, Ohio. Without reason, that story continues in spite of being told by leaders of the city that Haitians were invited and went to Springfield legally and were welcomed there! Of course, Vance thought it was okay to make up a story about the situation, causing people to believe residents were eating cats and dogs!

Now, despite the unlikely chance of the story being true, Trump brought it to the big stage during the debate with Vice-President Kamala Harris. He threw in the lie on the presidential debate stage and has never stopped bringing it up with people correcting him. He not only didn’t pay attention, but went on vowing to go to Springfield, knowing that story would not be welcomed!

At the debate, moderators calmly tried to correct him. His and Vance’s lie about this story resulted in the unnecessary, racist lies they knew would hurt Springfield’s Haitian community. Schools and businesses had to be closed. This frightened young children who wanted to be in school. That was brought on by hate of Haitian people and for no other reason than their being Black!

Let’s go to the Middle East. We’ve witnessed a situation where millions of innocent people, many of them babies, were killed for no reason because they were not the ones who went into Israel and caused havoc. Many are afraid to speak out because they are afraid to be called anti-Semitic but those thousands of Palestinians who’ve been killed by Israeli forces had nothing to do with the tragedy in Israel. Then even, as he came to the United Nations, Netanyahu had the gall to blame the whole United Nations as being anti-Semitic. It’s time for Netanyahu, friends of Netanyahu, and AIPAC to stop accusing everybody whose help they are only too happy to keep getting by frightening people who care about what is right, but afraid to speak out against wrong. If you watched his speech, you saw that only a handful applauded during his long and hate-filled speech. I know people, even many in Israel, are tired of his spewing his hate toward everybody who doesn’t agree with him. I’ve already been hurt over this issue so I am not afraid. I applaud those who are willing to point out wrong from right no matter who is doing it.

Trump, Vance nor Netanyahu should be leading any nation. We can’t do anything about Netanyahu since we don’t vote in Israel, but we do have the right and obligation to vote in the United States. On November 5, 2024, we can lessen the hatred by making sure Trump is never again allowed to lead our nation. So, please listen to the candidate who is leading us in the right direction. Vote for VP Kamala Harris and return our nation to one of hope and love – not hate.

This article originally published in the October 7, 2024 print edition of The Louisiana Weekly newspaper.