Faith leaders: We cannot be silent about what is happening in America

Chicago Tribune

6 hours ago

'Our lives begin to end the day we become silent about things that matter.' These words, which fill a popular meme set against the profile of the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr., occupy our thoughts.
We fear that day is arriving on American shores along with nothing short of an onslaught against our basic human rights. While the boldest headlines tell how people are literally snatched off the streets, are being disappeared to foreign prisons, news that often receives less attention reveals that our civil liberties are also being snatched up, one by one.
In Selma, Alabama, a day after Bloody Sunday in 1965, a brutal assault by local law enforcement on nonviolent marchers, King spoke about the need to raise our voices: 'Deep down in our nonviolent creed is the conviction there are some things so dear, some things so precious, some things so eternally true, that they're worth dying for.'
There are so very many precious things under attack in this American moment; consider the bronze bust of King that the president recently had removed from the Oval Office. Eerily reminiscent of that time 60 years ago, many of these attacks are being coordinated by those in charge of the purported enforcement of the law. As much as this is a time of existential concern, it is also a great — and we believe mandatory — opportunity to stand up for that which is right.
But first, we must understand the severity of all that is wrong.
To begin with, the very due process of law is under attack. We are witnessing expedited deportations — including those of children who are U.S. citizens — along with the intentional bypassing of immigration courts paired with limiting access to legal counsel. U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents are unlawfully detaining citizens, notably including California U.S. Sen. Alex Padilla. Chicago police officers have reportedly aided ICE officers, in violation of Chicago statute, a move that is prompting further investigation. Furthermore, ICE agents are widely wearing masks and refusing to identify themselves, a likely violation of our Fourth Amendment right against unreasonable search and seizure.
Violations of habeas corpus aside — that's how this administration functions, it seems — the rule of law in general is under attack. The attacks on law firms and lawyers, even as Chicago's own Jenner & Block bravely resists, has nonetheless led to other firms with major offices in our city simply capitulating out of avarice or cowardice. Such 'comply in advance' legal actions line up in complicity with an administration that is disregarding court orders, threatening the impeachment of judges, and eroding the checks and balances of an independent judiciary.
Our fundamental freedom of speech is also experiencing sustained assault. Travelers' social media feeds are subject to inspection at the border, and students coming the U.S. to study are having their feeds examined for ominous (and vague) 'indications of hostility.' Protesters in Los Angeles — who overwhelmingly were demonstrating peacefully — compelled the federal administration to deploy the National Guard against the advice of the governor and then mobilized the Marines to police citizens. Furthermore, there is a sustained effort to undermine the freedom of the press by targeting journalists, suing media outlets, pulling funding and even politicizing the White House press pool.
LGBTQ+ rights are under assault, and Black and Latino communities — along with other minorities — are being further marginalized through sustained attacks on education inclusion, all in the land of 'e pluribus unum.'
Given this state of affairs, it should not be surprising that objective measurements of freedom and democracy in the United States have eroded since January. Three months ago, the United States was added to the Civicus Monitor watchlist, which identifies countries that the global watchdog believes are experiencing a rapid decline in civic freedoms. We are not deluded: What we see is what is happening.
And listing this doesn't capture the sheer violation of humanity: ripping babies away from their mothers, damaging trans kids by denying them access to medical care, and abetting food apartheid by working to eliminate Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program benefits.
That is why we cannot be silent. These things — human rights, civil liberties, basic human dignity — matter.
In preparing this essay, we learned that King never precisely said: 'Our lives begin to end the day we become silent about things that matter.' Although that was his message, his actual words are even more profound and challenging:
'A man dies when he refuses to stand up for that which is right. A man dies when he refuses to stand up for justice. A man dies when he refuses to take a stand for that which is true.
'So we're going to stand up amid horses. We're going to stand up right here in Alabama, amid the billy clubs. We're going to stand up right here in Alabama amid police dogs, if they have them. We're going to stand up amid tear gas! We're going to stand up amid anything they can muster up, letting the world know that we are determined to be free!'
So should we stand up, amid ICE agents and Marines. Committed to nonviolence, dedicated to the proposition that we must love our neighbor as we love ourselves, we're going to stand up right here in Chicago, amid even billy clubs and dogs and tear gas.
We are going to stand up amid anything they can muster, letting the world know we are determined to be free.
Join us.
Chicago faith leaders Rabbi Seth Limmer, the Rev. Otis Moss III, the Rev. Ciera Bates-Chamberlain and the Rev. Michael Pfleger joined the Tribune's opinion section in summer 2022 for a series of columns on potential solutions to Chicago's chronic gun violence problem. The column continues on an occasional basis.