‘Justice for All’ can’t account for the Orange Felon’s crimes

These days Memorial Day seems like nothing more than a good time for a barbecue, a vacation to Laughlin, or a round of golf while others plant flags on the graves of veterans. Long forgotten is the memory of why this holiday came about in the first place. 

Memorial Day emerged after the bloodiest conflict in United States history — the American Civil War — in which some 700,000 were killed, many more wounded (more dead than all the other wars we’ve ever fought). It was a war that divided our nation not unlike we are divided today. Now, oddly enough, it’s a culture war over many issues we thought were long settled that are residual from that war.

Memorial Day is now relegated to mourning all veterans of all wars, even the ones we as a nation should never have fought­. Vietnam and Iraq come to mind.

The coincidence of this day with our Fleet Week US Navy recruitment exposition adds another layer of complexity that elevates the art of war but ignores the costs of blood and treasure to our nation. We show off all the hi-tech weapons and military might, but not so much the sacrifices that come with deployment and combat. Ask any veteran with PTSD about being in a war zone.

The original Decoration Day was started by the mothers and widows of the dead of that gruesome war. You might even imagine that it was a protest of sorts that would emerge in the 20th Century as Mothers for Peace. It was a radical idea that caught on, and 1868 was adopted by the veterans of the Grand Army of the Republic. 

One early Memorial Day account occurred in Boalsburg, PA, where a trio of women decorated the graves of fallen soldiers in October 1864. Another was held in Charleston, SC, where Black freedmen and white “Northern abolitionist allies” hosted an enormous and historically significant program on May 1, 1865, at the “Martyrs of the Race Course” cemetery where 257 Union dead were buried. 

This was clearly a radical idea for its day. There were no BBQ’s or baseball games.

The first version of the Pledge of Allegiance was written in 1885 by Captain George Thatcher Balch, a Union Army officer in the Civil War who later authored a book on how to teach patriotism to children in public schools: “I pledge allegiance to my Flag and the Republic for which it stands, one nation, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.”

In 1892, Francis Bellamy revised Balch’s verse as part of a magazine promotion surrounding the World’s Columbian Exposition, which celebrated the 400th anniversary of Christopher Columbus’ arrival in the Americas.

Francis Bellamy, was a Baptist minister, a Christian socialist, and the cousin of the author Edward Bellamy, author, journalist, and political activist most famous for his utopian novel “Looking Backward.” The idea of the pledge was the idea of unifying the nation after this most bloody civil war, that even 20 years later still divided this country.

However, the very ideals of the pledge — “with liberty and justice for all” — still seem as radical today with Black Lives Matter and the attacks on ”wokeness” and critical race theory. We are still in a civil war over the “for all” part of our justice system that seems to be for some, mostly rich and definitely privileged and not all equally.

How else to explain how the Orange Felon has avoided prison on multiple felony counts and then once elected president having all cases summarily dropped? How else to account for his bribery, his violation of the emoluments clause, and his pardoning of the majority of the January 6 insurrectionists?

We do have a biased and often weak judiciary that even now as lower courts rule against the Orange Felon he tries to intimidate and even gets away with not following court orders on deporting immigrants. These are acts that would place the average citizen in jail, but not him.

So here we are in the first quarter of a new century, 250 years after our founding of the first modern democratic republic, and wondering if the next July 4th we will still have that republic.

Will we remember amidst all the flag waving and barbecues that this is something that our ancestors fought and died for, birthright citizenship, that bright light held up by the Statue of Liberty that was a beacon to the world at large for the oppressed and the homeless fleeing political oppression and autocracies abroad? Or will we now just be silent and submit to the censorship of contemporary fascism?

It happens incrementally by going after the undocumented immigrants first, then those who speak up for the oppressed, then the academics and the news media who write or report on the abuses of power. Will they go after the artists like Bruce Springsteen who speak out and deplore the actions of the Orange Felon? And then who is next?

True freedom is still a very radical ideal, one that must be defended in each generation, and our greatest enemy is now not from abroad but from within, by people who venerate the wealthy, bow to abuses of political power, and never question the authority of those who act with impunity and injustice against those without power or money.

This is a time for the reset button on our liberties where we have the temerity to ask, “What exactly does it mean to be free in this moment?” For many, it’s come down to being shackled by debt, homeless out of greed, and powerless to speak out of fear of retribution.

This is no longer the home of the brave and land of the free, but a form of servitude to the oligarchs. And I feel that there’s a reckoning coming. Will you be the next one to speak out?

This piece was originally published in LA Progressive. For more information, visit www.laprogressive.com.

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