Speak out against intolerance

Just when we thought the level of intolerance and racism in countries like the US and the UK could not get any worse, over the last few days the US President has not only lowered the bar below where many thought it possible to go in attaching four congresswomen of colour, but he then doubled down on this over the next days and, as I write this, yesterday he addressed a rally and, as he attacked Representative Ilhan Omar once more, the crowd chanted “send her back”.

Meanwhile, the silence from elected politicians is deafening.

A few weeks ago, a cabinet minister in the UK grabbed a woman by the throat and marched her out of a room where she was making a peaceful protest.

After watching the video of that again and again, what chilled me most was that nobody in the room thought to take action against him.

We now live in an environment where people of colour are increasingly scared to be in public transport, or even go to work, where, more than ever, they are told to “go back to where you came from” and even physically bullied and assaulted.

In such an environment, speak out, take action, don’t be silent.

Consider these words:

“In the end, we will remember not the words of our enemies, but the silence of our friends.”

Dr. Martin Luther King

Also, from an earlier post:

“When bad men combine, the good must associate; else they will fall, one by one, an unpitied sacrifice in a contemptible struggle.”

Edmund Burke

A powerful phrase that has been adjusted and repeated for many years as:

“The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is that good men do nothing.”