Nationalism
If only we had some history to draw on to predict what happens in nationalist movements.
Oh, wait, but we do. My grandfather gave part of his leg fighting against a nationalist movement in Asia while his peers fought against one in Europe. Nationalism, here in the US at the time, led to Japanese internment camps once the war was brought to our doorstep.
Time and time again nationalism has led to hate-filled campaigns that have targeted already marginalized communities. It was a nondescript individual who told people things they wanted to hear at a time they were suffering that paved the way for them to lose their humanity and to murder over 6,000,000 of their fellow humans. Approximately 30 years later another nondescript individual was able to convince the people of his nation that it was ok to murder 1,000,000 of their fellow humans in the name of nationalism in Cambodia.
People who are working hard to eke out a living forget that everyone else is doing the same. Instead, they are convinced that others are the problem and then they start to lose their humanity. They begin to believe that the others that are “causing” their problems are somehow less than and deserve to be harmed because they don’t look, sound, live, love, or believe as the nationalist does.
Christian Nationalism is particularly concerning because it makes one wonder how bad could something that says it’s Christian be? After all, it is founded in the name of a man who gave his life to save our souls & we do have a Christian foundation in this nation, though it isn’t codified. What is forgotten by Christian Nationalists is Christ was a brown man who loved everyone. They also forget, or conveniently distort, that our nation was founded on freedom of religion because no one wanted the religious oppression that had been imposed by the Church of England.
Christian Nationalists live and speak as if they believe that everyone should live and believe as they do. In a secular society founded on religious freedom that is simply not viable, permitted, or even desirable for the rest of us. The rest of us simply roll our eyes and believe they have a right to live as they choose within the parameters of the law.
Yes, those who disagree with the ideologies of the RAT (ReAwakening Tour) can simply ignore and not attend, or protest, but it is the hatred and the lies that are proliferated at such events that are at issue here. Sure, they have a right to their false narratives and the spreading of their hatred, but we also have a great deal of historical evidence about what happens when such speech goes unchecked. For those who claim that we don’t know what will happen, we do. This tour has already unfolded and these speakers have already called for some among us to be murdered. Fortunately, we do have a court system that has already sent a message to Alex Jones and others like him. To sit silently watching or ignoring the presence of so much vitriol in our area will leave us answering the questions of our children and grandchildren as so poignantly stated by another writer recently, “when fascism came what did you do”.
As a candidate, as a community member, and as a mother- I can not nor will I stand by and watch as we are divided and conquered by hatred.
Jennifer Keys is a candidate for NYS Assembly 139th District
