If you’re looking for a way to join the fight in protecting democracy and ensuring that the once-touted “American Dream” does not continue to devolve into America’s nightmare, then mark your calendars for Friday, Aug. 28.
Martin Luther King III and the Rev. Al Sharpton — under the banner of his National Action Network — will come to the nation’s capital for the 63rd anniversary of the March on Washington, joined by other civil rights leaders as they passionately defend voting rights.
Ironically, while the U.S. recently celebrated 250 years of independence, it has become clear that many of America’s leaders do not believe the ideas the Founding Fathers so eloquently promoted in the Declaration of Independence.
From the White House to the “out house,” the clarion call that unabashedly rests on the lips of white supremacists, racists, and bigots is that “liberty and justice for all” is a conditional right – one which is only guaranteed for those who belong to the “members only” community.
Perhaps that’s true in other countries, but not here in America. At least not yet.
However, on July 16, during a primetime speech, the president falsely warned of “shocking vulnerabilities in our election infrastructure,” in efforts to cast doubt on America’s ability to hold “free and fair elections.”
Despite his ranting and raving, the president offered no proof to support his allegations. What was evident is that the president is a sore loser and still has not been able to accept the fact that he lost the election in 2020.
As David Becker, the executive director and founder of the Center for Election Innovation & Research, said during a press conference on July 17, “the White House promised a bombshell, and they delivered a dud.”
Even the president’s own Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency concluded in 2020 that the election that year “was the most secure in American history,” a line the president mocked in his speech.
Listening to the president’s tirade, which was filled with inaccuracies and unsubstantiated claims, was similar to an old Danish fairy tale: “The Emperor’s New Clothes.”
First published in 1837, the story, translated into over 100 languages, refers to something widely accepted as true or professed to be praiseworthy, due to an unwillingness of the general population to criticize it or be seen as going against popular opinion.
In the story, the townspeople pretend to see the emperor’s non-existent outfits so that they can fit in. But as the emperor struts like a peacock through the town, wearing his magic suit, which was actually nothing at all, a little boy cries out, “But he isn’t wearing anything at all!”
As the child spoke, others in the crowd began to whisper and realize the truth.
America’s “emperor” wants us to believe that the new clothes which he wants us to both admire and defend are his erroneous claims of rampant voter fraud. It’s time for Americans to follow the little boy who called out the emperor’s nudity, and find their own strength to call out lies.
Only the truth will set us free.
