The recent exchange in letters to the editor between Brian Vincent and Elijah Dann [published Jan. 7 and 21 respectively] followed largely the arguments being made in congress about the equivalence or non-equivalence of the recent horrific events in Washington with those having taken place in other U.S. cities last year. The discussion was chiefly about ruptured boils which unfortunately had been allowed to fester untreated for far too long.
The ABC News article False Equivalence between Black Lives Matter and Capitol Siege, suggested for reading by Dann, says about the insurrectionists that certain people having lived in a fantasy world of impending civil war for four decades — presumably filled with accumulated resentment — felt suddenly empowered by this summons from the president of the United States. On the other hand,
Martin Luther-King’s speech I have a Dream, rang out almost 60 years ago too, and although progress has been made since then, remains still largely unfulfilled, the fate of George Floyd and others only the most recent flashpoint to cause frustration to erupt.
The same article has a professor of education and sociology at American University stating that the motivation of those supporting Black Lives Matter comes out of disenfranchisement and therefore differs from the grievances of those storming the Capitol, since the latter was fuelled instead by feelings of “precarity” or “fear of something being taken away.”
That may be a good academic argument for distinguishing the two, but does it hold up at street level? “Fear of something being taken away” or “losing something,” be it status, privilege or whatever else, can just as easily be interpreted as the fear of becoming disenfranchised.
That fear is at home particularly with those only marginally better off than the already disenfranchised and thus representative of the other burst boil.
That the Capitol siege, with rioters baying for the blood of the vice-president and the house speaker, and with the commander in chief essentially looking on after having whipped up the crowd beforehand, belongs into a different category than the BLM protests last year, needs hardly further elaboration. The discussion must, however, be refocused, away from dubious comparisons, onto the disease itself which led to this “uncivil war,” as President Joe Biden calls it, and examine what is required to cure it.
It will not be an easy task. We live in times of monumental historic changes, 500 years of Western dominance, call it white supremacy if you wish, is entering its twilight and with it also the more recent American supremacy.
No epochal changes in the past have ever happened without severe systemic stress, generated either by those trying to resist it, others to exploit it for their own selfish ends or those attempting to reshape a new societal contract.
It is therefore also a time of utmost importance to reflect on what commitments a healthy democracy requires and to reevaluate the part we play and can play as individuals to make it work better.
Wolfgang Wittenburg
Squamish
