(TriceEdneyWire.com) - When Barack Obama became our President, some of us began to believe our nation was on its way to approaching equal rights for all where most of us had a chance to become whatever we chose to work for. Some of us began to be comfortable with the idea that our children and grandchildren could become whatever they were willing to work for. They were becoming leaders at all kinds of places. They were having opportunities that we could not even dream we could ever have.
For a while, we didn’t have to read about so many murders of our children. They didn’t witness the worst of America’s leaders from the top down using vulgar language, hearing about the highest ranking public officials raping women and not even serving time in jail for it!
We didn’t hear about Presidents in such an ugly way talking about their predecessors, using profanity during hours young people were up trying to concentrate on their studies. We didn’t witness a President ignoring court orders such as taking down his name from the President John F. Kennedy Center. He's still ignoring the order, and with another act of defiance of a court order, he placed a tarp over the space so no one would know the court order has not yet been obeyed or at least he keeps us believing that covering both his and President Kennedy’s name is what the court ordered, while he tries to figure out how to disobey the Court and leave his name there!
How Americans tolerate this man continuing to occupy our White House by disobeying every rule, every law, every practice followed for years without disobeying judges—and now he even disobeys Supreme Court orders without punishment! How do we teach our children to obey laws?
It’s no wonder many young people don’t feel they have to obey laws, do things reminiscent of many years past and think nothing of killing a young man by the name of Nolan Wells in Mississippi. I thank God for an athlete who has been cheated out of his chances to go as far as his talent would take him, yet show his thoughtfulness by intervening and paying for seeking justice for young Nolan Wells.
Before Nolan Wells, there was Karmelo Anthony from Texas who was cheated out of a fair trial. Every possibility was denied him when certain witnesses who likely would have told a different story about what happened in the tragedy. Karmelo who was a senior in high school when he was convicted under questionable circumstances. He was given 35 years in prison and sent there immediately from the courtroom at the end of the trial.
In response to Karmelo’s tragedy, we’ve seen other acts of kindness when Attorneys Russell Wilson,11, Sean Moore, Brooke Cluse, (from Ben Crump’s Law Firm), Sean Dredia, and Justin Moore are handling his appeal against the conviction. They are conducting an independent review of the trial record to identify any legal errors there appear to be. I don’t believe so many lawyers of the caliber of this group would offer their services pro bono if they didn’t already see certain actions believed to be errors that denied Anthony a fair trial.
It seems that in many ways we’ve returned to the years when a Black person had no rights that a white man had to respect. It’s a tragedy that after the blood, sweat, tears and lives of so many people, we are brought back to where we were many years ago
We need more than Black people and a few others to show their humanity and not leave decency in this country to Black people alone who’ve already been denied so much. Everyday, I’m left to wonder where some of my non-Black friends are on confronting-what we have today!
Dr. E. Faye Williams is president of the Dick Gregory Society