Crazy Faith Ministries
U.S. Attorney General Jeff Sessions is working to bring back the “War on Drugs,” pushing for the harshest sentences for low-level drug offenses.
This from a man who some have suggested lied at his confirmation hearing and who may have violated his promise to recuse himself from “all things Russia” when he participated in the firing of ex-FBI Chief Jim Comey this week.
Sessions has been known to extrapolate on how “the rule of law” must be followed. “Law and order” is his battle cry … except, it seems, when breaking the law and threatening the order applies to him.
When the announcement of Sessions’ intent to bring back the war on drugs came, I wondered if his desire to sweep the streets of low-level drug offenders would include the many White people who are addicted to opiates? Is a drug offense a drug offense, or is a drug offense only a drug offense if it is a poor person of color who gets caught?
The agenda of this administration is frightening on many levels. The seemingly complete willingness to sidestep all law and protocol is beyond comprehension, as is the hue and cry about adhering to the United States Constitution. The shenanigans pulled by Senator Mitch McConnell, R-KY, in preventing even a hearing for Merrick Garland for the United States Supreme Court so that former President Obama’s pick could not possibly be seated is still an oozing sore for many. Was that constitutional or just willful disrespect for “law and order?”
What McConnell has done has been troubling, but what Sessions is alleged to have done – i.e., committing perjury, is against the law. His violation of his promise to recuse himself from anything having to do with the investigation into the Trump relationship with Russia is a violation of his responsibility as a jurist, right?
But he gets to set into motion actions that will empower prosecutors to reignite the movement that put literally hundreds of thousands of low-level drug offenders into prison. It is disgusting and feels like little more than racism reignited, complete with efforts to keep African Americans locked away while the likes of him get away with “white collar crime.”
It feels like our nation is spiraling downward, back into racism, sexism, classism, militarism, materialism and all of the other vices from which it felt like we were moving away. It feels like the democracy called America has rotted at its core, with people in office with a lot of money who are deferring to the “powers and principalities” that work against the masses of people, Trump supporters included. It feels like the blanket that has covered America’s warts has been yanked off and the America that has been exposed is making the world look on in stunned disbelief.
The pots in the White House are calling the kettles black; those who are violating law, order, decency, morality and ethics are in position to flaunt their disregard for humanity all over the place.
And it feels like the very stove on which the pots are sitting is about to crumble.
“Democracy leans toward demagoguery, which undoes it,” Aristotle said.
Surely, he was right.
Rev. Dr. Susan K Smith is the founder and director of Crazy Faith Ministries and a communications consultant for the Samuel DeWitt Proctor Conference Inc. She is available for speaking. She can be contacted through revsuekim@sbcgloba.net.
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