Silence is Complicity #SpeakUp

This Tuesday night on #DeadlineWhitehouse, Eddie S. Glaude, Jr. was a guest. His answer about the topic of the rhetoric of violent threats struck me. I am still thinking about it.

“Nicole, we’re not gonna ever change. Until we hold the people we love accountable….People who know better, eat dinner with folk, they love them dearly, and they know they hold these noxious views. They know they’re out there doing this stuff. And they’re not doing anything, they’re not saying anything because they love them.” Professor Glaude went on to say that we can no longer look away.

Their conversation and that segment moved me to write this blog. What are we as Americans going to do about this? Ignore this behavior? Or, speak up and debunk the misinformation as well as disinformation?

Toxic rhetoric is doing more damage to the United States than ever before. We have domestic terrorists doxing our community leaders, damaging utility infrastructure, threaten volunteers at school or library board meetings, the list is endless. We have leaders in Washington DC call the current administration a “regime” – what?? Democracy is a way of governing which depends on the will of the people. A regime is essentially an authoritarian government or dictatorship. Why do some resort to hateful speech about an opponent, that is not true?

It is getting more and more difficult to stay quiet when I know something is a lie, is not the truth, is not fact or science based. I am all for “but I researched it” answer, but how and where? Research is NOT Google! Or a video on You Tube, for that matter.

Silence is Complicity.

There are plenty of middle news organizations that offer anyone a both sides point of view: Pew Research Center, Associated Press, Reuters, PBS, NPR, to name a few. Start learning about the truth, please. Our nation depends on it.

#silenceiscomplicity #community #politics