By Dr. John E. Warren
Publisher
San Diego Voice & Viewpoint
As Thomas Payne once wrote in his paper “The Crisis” during the American revolution, “These are the times that try men’s souls.”
Nothing is more trying than seeing an American President, who has taken an oath to “Protect And Defend” the Constitution of the United States, blatantly ignore both his oath and the very document he swore to uphold. There is nothing worse than a lawless President, a Republican controlled Congress and a United States Supreme Court who refuse to take the necessary steps to protect the very people they too swore to ‘Protect and Defend.”
While “We” the American people rise up in protest against the unconstitutional efforts of all the parties named above, we must do so within the confines of the law.
We must not allow our sense of moral righteousness and frustration to lead us to the very acts of violence that this President and all his agents want and need to justify their violation of laws that prohibit placing American troops on the grounds of the United States as prohibited by law.
Again, we must go into the Congressional District of each and every Republican Member of Congress who remains silent against the President’s violation of his Oath and the law that he swore to uphold.
We must not allow the ICE arrest and protest to become a distraction from our fight to block Trump’s “Big Beautiful Bill”which would literally kill millions of Americans with the loss of healthcare insurance and benefits. We must laser focus on the recall and removal from office all vulnerable Members of the House of Representatives and the Senate, to ensure the defeat of this Bill. We can fight ICE long after the Bill is defeated, but less not be tricked by the forces of Trump.
“We The People” must keep up the protest and “We the Press” must stay the course as the Trusted Messengers, the Black Press in particular, have been for 198 years.
Black people in particular can not afford to sit this one out, no matter what the rationale. We are all in this boat together. We can be angry with the President, but let’s not forget those both with him and standing behind him. Let’s think about what we will do about them.
We can cover the ongoing boycotts in corporate America, but let’s not get caught up in them. Let us remember that there are only three things that corporate America understands: (1) Loss Profits, (2) Bad Publicity, and (3) A Vote cast against Their Interest.
We, the Press, have the job of reporting on how each of these elements are affecting corporate America as we go about our task of daily news reporting. The same applies to the President and his conduct under the rule of law. Let us help each other with this critical task so key to survival of democracy and our own survival during “These Are The Times That Try Men’s Souls”.
