I am sure I am not the only one that has wondered what a modern day civil war would look like. Tensions have been rising for many years in America as we struggle for a more perfect union. The peaceful protests that started in response to the tragic deaths of Trayvon Martin, Tamir Rice and Eric Garner, have been reignited after George Floyd and Breonna Taylor have been killed at the hands of the police, and now Jacob Blake has been shot in the back by law enforcement. The First Amendment ensures the right to peacefully protest, and peaceful protests are often accompanied by a few violent actors, whether in Minneapolis, Kenosha, Portland or Charlottesville. I do not condone acts of violence, and we need to take action to control the senseless violence.
We cannot, however, let the violence obscure the meaning and importance of peaceful protests. There is a myth that a peaceful protest is a quiet one. Tell that to the American colonists who protested in the Boston Harbor in December 1773. They dumped 342 chests of tea overboard, causing property damage and sparking a revolutionary war against tyrannical rule.
We have been awakened to the striking contrast of inequities in our society by the #MeToo and #BlackLivesMatter movements, and COVID-19, combined with acknowledgement that climate change, access to health care, rights of the disabled, and protections for immigrants have been under-recognized for far too long. The inequities that our marginalized citizens have faced throughout our country’s history are being refuted by those marginalized, and they refuse to accept the inequities any longer.
This past Saturday night before I went to bed, I heard about a police officer who had been shot in downtown St. Louis and has now died. Sunday morning I heard that officers in Chicago had also been shot, and a Trump supporter was shot in Portland. All this after two lives were taken in Kenosha, Wisconsin earlier this week by a 17-year-old with a gun attempting to support the police. Is this what civil war looks like in modern society?
The civil outcry cannot just be for the police officers who risk their lives every day; the outcry needs to be equally applied to every life that has been taken violently during these turbulent times.
A good leader does not take sides. A good leader brings people to the table, listens to grievances and helps chart a path for peaceful resolution to the crisis.
Here in Missouri we are in the midst of a special session for law and order, promoted by our Governor, Mike Parson, as an effort to help reduce crime in our cities. Yet, all of the focus is on how we can better police the people of the cities. Our local Black Representatives and Senators were not invited to the table. They were not included in discussions about the issues they are grappling with in their own communities, especially, and not limited to, police reforms. Nothing was done to take guns off the streets of our cities. In fact, in the House of Representatives, we removed a Missouri statute that would prevent giving a gun to a minor without the consent of their parent.
Every person who testified in the House committee said there were too many guns in the hands of children. Who put them there? The Missouri legislature did when we passed SB 656 in 2016, allowing adults and children to carry guns without any training or requiring a permit. The bill expands “stand your ground” in Missouri and allows open carry of weapons on our streets and into buildings, including the Capitol in Jefferson City. This bill left open a loophole in which a person accused of domestic violence can continue to carry a gun, putting their partner at grave risk, until conviction.
Nothing was done to prevent crimes during this special session; nothing was done to prevent lives from being lost as we spire toward hatred for each other.
My opponent will say that, as a Democrat, I want to defund the police and I want to take their guns away. Neither is true. It is not unreasonable to seek alternative policies to get to the root of the violence, and to ask for background checks, age limits, and carry permits to prevent gun violence from occurring on our streets.
It is time for leaders to step up and work to resolve the differences between our two warring sides, lest we have another civil war that pits brother against brother, this time on our streets, as we continue our quest for a more perfect nation.
Join me in promoting equality and evidence-based criminal justice policies by donating to my Missouri State Senate campaign at https://lavenderforstatesenate.com/.