Every time I hear someone say Black Lives Matter, or I see it painted in the street, or it appears in someone’s lawn sign, I’m reminded of the legitimate cry of most black Americans who wanted to be treated “equally.” That always resonated positively with me, and I have spent a lifetime honoring that most-reasonable plea.
But if I substitute “All Lives Matter” for current protestations that Black Lives Matter, I face condemnation. And it comes not only from some blacks who have been caught up in a fairly new and dangerous campaign that extends far beyond seeking justice for fellow blacks. It also comes from whites who insist that I am not willing to admit that blacks have been ill-treated here in America. But the reprehensible treatment given blacks is something I have never denied and have protested against, and I shouldn’t have to be reminded about it by people who regularly seek forgiveness for some conduct, practices, and attitudes they have never been guilty of. To them, I like to insist that our country deserves praise as a place where slavery was abolished. Their customary response to that way of looking at the situation includes a sneer and an unforgiving charge that I am a racist. Which is totally false.
Columnist Cal Thomas has dug out the sinister side of the Black Lives Matter movement. He points to a report from the Acton Institute for the Study of Religion and Liberty that lists the BLM’s founding principles as “guaranteed minimum income for all black people, free health care, free schooling, free food, free real estate, gender reassignment surgery, free abortion, and a global liberation movement [designed to] overturn U.S. imperialism and capitalism.” That’s socialism mixed with revolutionary design. No thanks!
Thomas then points to a report from Breitbart News containing the following unsurprising background of BLM co-founder Patrisse Cullors: “She was the protege of Eric Mann, former agitator of the Weather Underground domestic terror organization, and spent years absorbing the Marxist-Leninist ideology that shaped her world view.” Thomas added that the New York Post cited Cullors’ claim in a 2015 video that she and her fellow agitators are “trained Marxists.”
One of the more recent causes championed by BLM calls for defunding police. Getting that done would not be easy because there are over 4,000 local police forces in the United States, each funded by local governments. If Seattle or some other city listening to BLM wants to do away with its police force, that would be somewhat suicidal. But it would affect only Seattle. The system of locally controlled police forces, separate from any federal or international power, was a wise decision reached by the Founders of our nation. Yes, there have been rogue policemen though these are very few in number. They have been and should be dealt with whenever they betray the role set for them.
Nevertheless, based on what Cal Thomas and other sources have has told us, it’s clear that Black Lives Matter poses a danger to our country. Wikipedia reports some of the same facts discovered by the Acton Institute. So we conclude that BLM should be watched and prevented from achieving its goals, a collection of which would convert our USA into the kind of nightmare endured only recently by the people of Russia and now by millions of Chinese.
BLM’s real goals have been discovered by some astute blacks. Sound-thinking residents in the Chicago area see danger in the movement. After witnessing an attempt to tear Chicago apart in the wake of a police shooting that stimulated widespread looting and mayhem, some of the local black citizens chased BLM agitators away. The president of the Englewood Political Task Force, Darryl Smith, told the BLM protestors, “If your issue is with the police, take it to police headquarters. Don’t come to our neighborhood. If our people want to protest the police, they can do it. But no one from the [White] northside or Indiana or any place other than Englewood can come here to protest.”
That’s good thinking even if BLM’s ultimate goals aren’t completely understood. Let us hope that the Black Lives Matter movement fades away, replaced by such action taken by the black leaders in the Englewood area of Chicago.
John F. McManus is president emeritus of The John Birch Society.
