John,

Last week, we cited an analysis showing that if black Americans died from COVID-19 at the same rate as whites, 13,000 more black Americans would be alive today. Another survey showed 56 percent of black Americans had lost income from employment since mid-March, and that close to one-quarter of blacks reported sometimes or often not having enough to eat in the previous seven days, more than three times the proportion of whites.

Then, amid the tensions over sickness and want, another crisis: George Floyd was killed by homicidal police in plain view of the world.

The outrage of this crime, after so many other injustices, sent thousands of people into the streets. In this outpouring, there is anger, and the courage to stand up to repressive tactics to demand that this nation finally, finally must live up to its promise of equal protection of the law.

Join CHN in helping to provide bail for thousands of peaceful protesters by donating to these community bail funds. CHN is joining a coordinated donation effort to ensure community bail funds, which help arrested protesters who are unable to post cash bail, are fully funded.

And then there is the tinpot tyrant. After a few words acknowledging the wrong that had been done to Mr. Floyd, President Trump seized upon the protests as another opportunity to exploit division and to advance self-interest. The man who last month showed his smallness by sitting in front of the towering statue of Abraham Lincoln did not express “malice toward none, charity for all”—just nothing but malice. He admires tyrants, not leaders. He tries to exert force, mistaking it for strength.

All through the national emergency of the pandemic, his talent for putting on a self-aggrandizing show came up very short against the nation’s real need for healing. Neither he nor his lackeys had any idea how to plan and sustain protection from the devastation of COVID-19.

We still need healing. We still need justice.

But the tinpot tyrant will not seek “firmness in the right as God gives us to see the right…to finish the work we are in, to bind up the nation’s wounds…” No, instead he uses peaceful demonstrators as extras, a backdrop to his starring role as imperious ruler. But they were not “extras”—they were real people, demanding the democracy we are promised, but subjected to tear gas, flash grenades, and military force to make way for the tyrant’s photo op in front of St. John’s Church, a few steps away from the White House. No contact was made with the Episcopal diocese ahead of time. He stood there holding a Bible, near a sign saying “All are welcome” until he edged away from it, soon joined by Administration officials and staff. A very few minutes and then back to the White House.

Episcopal Bishop the Right Rev. Mariann Edgar Budde expressed outrage. “The president used a Bible, the most sacred text of the Judeo-Christian tradition, and one of the churches of my diocese, without even asking us, as a backdrop for a message antithetical to the teachings of Jesus and everything that our church stands for.”   

And that message? He seeks “domination” by military force on our communities if governors do not exert it on their own. When the National Guard achieved that, in his view, in Minneapolis, Trump told the governors “It was a beautiful thing to watch.”

The vast majority of protesters are peacefully and courageously standing for justice.

Join CHN in helping to provide bail to thousands of peaceful protesters by donating to these community bail funds. (The full amount of your donation will go to these funds.)

We need leaders to follow their lead. We need legislation to stop the use of military weaponry and tactics against our communities. A letter drafted by the Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights, the ACLU and others and signed by 400 organizations (including the Coalition on Human Needs) was sent to Congressional leaders, calling on them to eliminate federal programs that provide military equipment to law enforcement. The letter also calls for federal standards that limit the use of force by police, prohibiting racial profiling, and various means of holding police accountable. These are practical steps Congress can take to turn us back towards civilian democracy and away from racial oppression.

The federal government has other work to do as well.

The number of confirmed COVID-19 cases has climbed to more than 1.8 million in the U.S. as of this writing. More than 40 million of us are unemployed and hurting. The Senate must take up the HEROES bill passed by the House to prevent the shock to the economy from turning into a long-term depression. The infection of racism that has allowed such disproportionate harm to people of color demands a remedy; so does the chronic toxicity of police violence.

During his call with governors, someone said that the military action in Minneapolis looked like an occupying force. Trump replied, “people wouldn’t have minded an occupying force.” Such is his hope—that creating an alternative reality show playing to fear, division and racism will distract people from his failures to protect us from the pandemic and its economic devastation.

Thank you for your support during this challenging time,

Deborah Weinstein
Executive Director, Coalition on Human Needs