Thread by @RevDrBarber

Today, as a pastor trying to be faithful to the Gospel, I sent a letter to Congressional leaders on both sides of the aisle @SenateMajLdr @SenSchumer @SpeakerPelosi @GOPLeader calling on them to refuse to be comfortable with other people's deaths. I hope others will do the same.

Read the letter & pass it on:
breachrepairers.org/blogs/letter-t…

America’s original inhabitants found themselves victims of genocide not because the violence against them was unknown or unopposed, but because too many in power were too comfortable with other people’s death.

In the Middle Passage, some say millions of ppl were thrown into the Atlantic Ocean long before they made it to America. Too many in power—even some who didn’t agree w/ slavery—knew it was happening, but they were too comfortable with other people’s death & allowed it to go on.

During slavery many people were lynched—a form of murder that would continue well into the 20th century. People in power knew about it, but too many were too comfortable and chose not to fight it with everything they had.

During the Gilded Age there were no laws to protect child workers and other workers in factories, because too many people in power loved their money and were too comfortable with other people’s death.

We know now that so much about the Vietnam War was built on lies, and our sons and daughters were sent into battle on false pretenses, because too many knew the death it would cost, but they were too comfortable with other people’s death.

This spiritual malady that has been a part of the American way of life is still too prevalent.

Over the past several weeks we have seen $2+ trillion passed for corporations & businesses. 700 ppl were dying a day from poverty before this pandemic. Thousands of ppl were dying b/c of lack of healthcare, in many states b/c leadership would not accept healthcare through the ACA

Now we have passed 3 bills & are on the verge of a 4th & not 1 of them guarantees healthcare even for workers on the front line risking their lives. Not 1 of these bills prevents ppl’s utilities from being turned off. Not 1 guarantees living wages or long-term rent forgiveness.

The President has abdicated his responsibility, choosing to lie and refusing to fully implement the Defense Production Act, which could ensure that we have the materials we need to save people’s lives.

He made his feelings clear at the beginning of this pandemic when he mentioned the number of persons that had died from the flu, as if to suggest that until we passed that number we really didn’t have a problem.

Too many in power—from Governors’ Mansions to halls of Congress to the White House—are still too comfortable with other ppl’s death. If any of us refuses to fight w/ everything we have to ensure what’s needed for poor & low income ppl, we are too comfortable w/ other ppl’s death.

We know poor ppl are dying at alarming rates. We know poor ppl of color are dying even more, b/c of structural inequalities. We know pandemics live in the fissures of our society & we know the communities that don’t have healthcare even if they get tested still suffer death.

Yet we call those who are on the frontlines of this pandemic essential workers. Why is there not an all-out cry and an all-out fight on the floors of Congress to ensure that we provide the essential resources needed to secure healthcare and living wages?

Why do we continue to act as though we don’t have the money, when even if we took some of the money from our defense budget to provide for the poor, we would still have the strongest defense many times over?

Why do we maintain the low tax rates on corporations and the wealthy, who we know received at least $1.5 trillion in tax cuts since 2017? Why is it that politicians will celebrate their compromises, even when they know that the compromises cut out far too many people?

We need the Congress to pass bills that establish justice and promote the general welfare. Anything else is a dereliction of duty.

I am troubled today, because of the refusal to pass a bill focused on the millions of poor and low wealth people in this country who are suffering needlessly in this country of abundance.

In each era of this country’s history, the organized actions of those impacted by systemic injustices and suffering compelled those in power to take action.

From slaves running to freedom and the abolitionist movement to the massive labor movements of the 1930s, the women’s movement, the civil rights movement, the anti-war movements, and the generations upon generations of native and indigenous resistance,

those most impacted have always pushed our government towards establishing a more perfect union.

We remain far from that goal, but there is a movement emerging among the poor today that is, again, pushing for you to focus on the poor in this country of abundance, on those most impacted by this pandemic, and refuse to be comfortable with their deaths.

People are dying not because of nature or the germ but the failure of government. And this is killing what’s left of the soul of America. It could kill us all.

I pray this plague doesn’t have to reach deep into your homes before you feel what the poor and vulnerable are feeling—the sickness, the chills, the fear, the hurt, the death. I pray we see together that everybody has a right to live.

It took feeling the pain in a very personal way for Pharaoh to turn. I hope & pray that doesn’t have to happen again today.

Congress needs to stay in session and pass a bill that at least ensures healthcare, living wages, care for the homeless, utility and housing protection, and care for the undocumented and native tribes.

Please demonstrate that you are uncomfortable with other people’s death. No more prayer and platitudes and patronizing. Pass a bill and let the President decide before the public whether he will sign it. Let the House pass it and the Senate refuse or vice versa.

In times like these, we need everybody to forget the misguided politics of divide and conquer and wheel and deal. Just for a moment, consider the politics of love, justice, and care for humanity.

We will all be judged by history & eternity for what we do in this moment, & if you do not take care of the poor & low wealth, this economy will implode. The only way out is to lift up everybody. Otherwise, the weight of the pain at the bottom will break the back of our society.

Jesus said, “In as much as you did it unto the least of these, you did it unto me.”

This is not begging, but rather sharing a warning as ancient as the Scriptures:

Ezekiel 22:29-30

“Extortion is rife, robbery is epidemic, the poor and needy are abused, outsiders are kicked around at will, with no access to justice.

“I looked for someone to stand up for me against all this, to repair the defenses of the city, to take a stand …”

You are each in my prayers,

Bishop William J. Barber II, DMin.

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