mass incarceration – Engaging Peace

by Kathie MM

On July 5, 1852, Frederick Douglass, man of color, social reformer, orator, statesman, and fugitive from slavery in Maryland, had the following to say about the Fourth of July:

“What, to the American slave, is your 4th of July? I answer: a day that reveals to him, more than all other days of the year, the gross injustice and cruelty to which he is a constant victim.

To him, your celebration is a sham; your boasted liberty, an unholy license; your national greatness, swelling vanity; your sounds of rejoicing are empty and heartless; your denunciation of tyrants, brass fronted impudence; your shouts of liberty and equality, hollow mockery; your prayers and hymns, your sermons and thanksgivings, with all your religious parade and solemnity, are, to Him, mere bombast, fraud, deception, impiety, and hypocrisy — a thin veil to cover up crimes that would disgrace a nation of savages.”

Douglass’s words continue to ring true for millions of people in the United States today–men, women, and children routinely denied the liberty and justice for all promised to those who came to our shores. Just consider a few examples:

The remnants of the Native American genocides, survivors who continue to see treaties broken, la nds stolen and/or polluted, rights disregarded;

The 2.2 million men and women incarcerated in this country (significantly higher than any other country in the world) and the racial discrimination built into sentencing,

Zero tolerance immigration policies towards men, women, children, and babies, more than tired and poor, fleeing danger and death.

Please, this Fourth of July, think of how we can do it better. Activism in the form of protests, demonstrations, petitions, and relentless shaming and exposure of the perpetrators of social injustice is probably essential; however, we also need to think creatively about combatting the fear and hatred those perpetrators deliberately seek to inflame for their own purposes. Many haters and hurters are reacting to their own anxieties and suffering in ways that help only the power mongers.

Can we create messages of love and brotherhood and sisterhood that can overcome the incentives to hatred and violence?

Can we follow the example of Kristin Mink, the brave young woman who spoke truth to power when the opportunity presented itself? If more seekers after peace, social justice, and preservation of a viable earth followed her example, perhaps next year’s Fourth of July would be an independence day for more of our nation’s people, and our planet would have a greater chance to survive.

P.S. No, I don’t think the power mongers, the racists, the hate purveyors, the despoilers of the environment, the enemies of peace and social justice are entitled to relaxing meals with their buddies and secret service agents in public places.

Please let me know what you think about this.

December 10 is Human Rights Day, the anniversary of the U.N. Declaration of Human Rights. In 1993, the World Conference on Human Rights (source of the Vienna Declaration and Programme of Action) created the United Nations post of High Commissioner for Human Rights. Internationally, there’s still much work to be done.

Here in the United States, the most urgent human rights problems include:

Sexual trafficking. The FBI notes that “Human sex trafficking is the most common form of modern-day slavery,” that it is the fastest growing business of organized crime, and that “The United States not only faces an influx of international victims but also has its own homegrown problem of interstate sex trafficking of minors.”

Mass incarceration. This national disgrace violates, among other human rights, the right of freedom from discrimination. See these articles in:

Capital punishment. States that maintain the death penalty violate many human rights—as does the federal government which permits such violations. Moreover, conditions on death rows constitute torture—another major human rights violation. See this (pdf) fact sheet or watch the video.

Poverty. Income inequality and its handmaiden, poverty, are both causes and effects of human rights violations—including economic, social and cultural rights indispensable for human dignity (Article 22 of the United Nations Declaration on Human Rights).

The U.S. is marketed as home of the free and the brave, but members of the privileged class who view rights solely as freedom to pursue their own wealth and power at all costs (i.e., costs to the less privileged) are neither free nor brave. Rather, they are the slaves of their own greed and the perpetrators of their own worst nightmares.

Kathie Malley-Morrison, Professor of Psychology