An Open Letter to the Michigan Protesters

The First Amendment protects your right to gather and protest. The Second Amendment protects certain rights to keep and bear arms. Storming the State House with assault rifles is, however, way over the top. It moves you from the category of protesters to domestic terrorists. It also illustrates with stunning clarity the privilege you enjoy as white men. If you had been people of color, there surely would have been some violence instigated by law enforcement.

Choosing the Confederate and Nazi flags as symbols of your “cause” is also your right. These symbols, however, beg the question of how such hatred and intolerance has come to define your way of being in the world.

The Confederate and Nazi flags are emblematic of two of the bleakest times in modern human history. The Confederate flag is a symbol of racism, pure and simple. During the Civil War the institution of slavery was the symbol of the status quo. Human beings were bought and sold like animals, and a person of color was considered 3/5 of a human being. The institution of slavery exploited millions of people, brought here against their will and enslaved to white entrepreneurs who depended on their labor to increase profit margins. Your choice of this symbol is a stark reminder that outlawing the institution of slavery has not eradicated racism. It is, however, incumbent on you to remember that the “rights” and “freedoms” you so freely flaunt are guaranteed to all people regardless of the color of their skin.

The Nazi flag is the quintessential symbol of intolerance and hatred. Millions of people were starved to death and slaughtered in the gas chambers of concentration camps. These victims of intolerance were put to death because of what they believed, who they loved, their social standing or their mental/physical ability. Well over six million people were murdered by a despot whom people willingly followed because of a bogus notion that there was a “superior” race and all others needed to be eliminated.

Flying the American flag with these symbols desecrates the flag you claim to care about so deeply. The American flag is a symbol of the rights and freedoms of all people, not just white men of privilege.

You may think that using these symbols makes you a badass protesting big government and standing up for your individual “rights and freedoms.” They do not. Rather, they show a remarkable intolerance to those who are different from you. Racism, Antisemitism, homophobia and other irrational fears of people who are different are inherent in the symbols of your “cause.” There is no way to redeem these symbols for our time. By using them you are tacitly, or blatantly, putting forth the “values” and “ideals” for which they stand. This doesn’t make you a badass; it makes you a bad American. America, at its best, is a nation where the rights and freedoms of all people are equally respected.

America, at its best, is also a nation that respects the rule of law. It is the standard of our society, a standard for which you show blatant disregard. For whatever selfish reason, you think your rights and freedoms are more important than anyone else’s. You are wrong. Flying the American flag with these symbols of hatred and intolerance desecrates the flag you claim to care about so deeply.

This is a time in our history when we need to be other focused and consider the common good above individual rights and desires. It appears that you assert your individual rights before the common good. Your resistance to this general principle of human decency is troubling. Perhaps you can select one or two family members you are willing to sacrifice for the sake of your “personal freedom.” Your grandmother, your child, your sibling or your spouse all make potential candidates for illness and death in the service of your “rights.”

Should you contract Covid-19, please have the human decency to refrain from seeking medical care. You surely have the right to put your life and the life of your cronies at risk. You do not, however, have the right to put health care workers at risk because of your selfishness. Perhaps your precious assault rifle can be the symbol that you are not a priority in health care since you put yourself in this position. Think of it as natural selection.

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