Hate Breeds Hate – Violence Breeds Violence-

“Violence never brings permanent peace.”
– MLK

New American Journal graphic by Walter Simon. Art Market Place

The Big Picture – 
By Glynn Wilson – 

It’s tragic that Joe Biden cannot say what I’m about to say.

Even if he did, at least a third of “the people” would not listen.

They won’t listen to me either. But I will say it anyway, for those who follow me and read the New American Journal.

These are the saddest, darkest days in American history, at least in my life and times and save only for the four years of Civil War, 1861-65, when the country was torn asunder by a lost cause so wrong and evil that we still live with the stinking, retching sin of it all.

Oh how I wish I could reach out to my patriotic brothers in arms, many proud Southern boys who might have done some good in this world, if they had just been exposed to a better education system and some real, honest, political leadership.

Just like those poor, lost boys from Alabama and elsewhere who died at Gettysburg fighting for the lost cause of Jefferson Davis and Robert E. Lee, somewhere, deep down in their souls, many of those who stormed the United States Capitol building on Wednesday, January 6, 2021, really do love this country. They yearn for freedom, and they are willing to take up arms to fight for it.

“Nothing in all the world is more dangerous than sincere ignorance and conscientious stupidity,” Dr. Martin Luther King once said. He was right about that, and a lot of other things.

Many just don’t understand what’s really going on, and maybe it’s not all their fault. Bear with me. They are fighting on the wrong side of history, because they have been misled by a president who wanted to be what political scientists call a “strongman,” a type of authoritarian political leader. They rule by autocratic dictatorships. Some use the military, others oligarchy, bossism or juntas.

Donald Trump is a charismatic figure to these people — even as he looks like a baffoon and a clown to everybody else. If he wasn’t so mixed up and evil himself, he might have done some good in this world. But he will be banished to some kind of hell now. Let it be written.

If only he had done his homework.

Unlike most of his followers, he had every advantage in this life. Born rich, in the greatest city in the country, maybe the world, he inherited plenty of money to have a fine life. He had access to the best education system in the world. What went wrong?

Trump was such a poor student of history that he tried to combine all forms of strongman into one cult of personality and overthrow the model democratic republic on the planet, with nasty rhetoric and propaganda techniques that go far beyond anything Hitler could have imagined in his day.

The incredible tools we now have with the latest technology could have been used to save democracy and the planet at the same time. The same goes for the creator of Facebook. Instead this technology was turned against us, like the worst of post-apocalyptic science fiction books and movies. And it is on the verge of destroying us.

If only the preachers in this country, the school teachers, public officials on the state and local level, would have taken a public stand against Trump’s golden brand of fascism four years ago, instead of glomming onto it in their own selfish gene drive to seek their own fame and fortune, things could have turned out differently.

It’s incredibly sad and beyond tragedy that it has come to this. This is not something to celebrate with Rock & Roll or anything else. It didn’t have to happen this way. But here we are.

I don’t think this country will ever be the same, and by extension, the world will never be the same.

There is no going back, I fear, at least on this day, as I reflect on where we are. I could change my mind next week if Joe Biden is safely sworn in and Trump is banished far away somewhere.

Even after we all get the coronavirus vaccine and reopen the economy, America will most likely never be great again — if it ever really was so great.

It was an incredible ideal, something magnificent to strive for. A few times in our history we actually came pretty damn close. You know those times I mean. Our response against fascism in World War II tops the list.

Isn’t it just an incredible historical irony that the folks who followed the “Make America Great Again” slogan of Trump — while wearing their MAGA caps and no masks — are actually complicit in tearing it all down and maybe destroying our country forever?

Of course they don’t believe that and never will. Because no one will seize all the channels of mass communications in this country and tell them that.

Human beings, Homo sapiens, live by narrative and the power of myth. They survived by repeating stories and finding sustenance for thousands of years before Google, Facebook, Twitter and Trump came along. Surely I don’t have to add the links again here for our educated, informed audience. You already know the stories.

These poor, misinformed working class people and Christians who follow Donald Trump would follow him off the end of the Earth into the mouth of an exploding volcano of hell, if he told them it led toward the stairway to heaven.

For some Christians, the Capitol riot doesn’t change the prophecy: Trump will be president

With sincerest wishes, I hope for the best for Joe Biden. I really do. But it will take a god to bring this country back together now, or a smarter species from one of those exoplanets we hear so much about in science.

Washington, D.C.

Piling sadness onto despair, one of the things I will miss the most is the nation’s capital itself. It will never be the same.

Should I consider myself lucky or smart that I got to spend the better part of the past six years exploring it for myself, photographing the place, and writing about it?

Explore Washington, D.C. from Greenbelt National Park’s Campground

Security was already so tight it was hard for tourists to get around and see the incredible sights. There is nothing like it in the world.

The security problems that began to ruin the place started under the presidency of George W. Bush after September 11, 2001, another day that will live in infamy. I lived across the Potomac River for a time in 2004-05 in Alexandria, Virginia, and felt the palpable tension of the place during the height of the war in Irag, even sitting in a park reading a book or riding a mountain bike to the National Mall. There always seemed to be helicopters overhead. And even back in the days when you could still ride a bike and sit on a bench in Lafayette Park by the White House, there always seemed to be undercover cops around. Sneaking a toke was still possible then, but you had to be careful, LOL.

Trump screwed the place up even worse. Maybe by design on advice and consent from his benefactor Vladimir Putin — or out of ignorance that what he was doing was accomplishing the exact opposite of what he said he wanted.

Not Since Nixon Has a President Been So Isolated and Hated: Trump Has to Go

His followers who stormed the Capitol did NOTHING for American “freedom.”

They just guaranteed that the latest modern tools of communications and national security will be used by the police state and national security state to clamp down even more on us all.

At this dangerous moment, I join with others in supporting a clamp down on social media communications, even if it is a clear violation and repudiation of the First Amendment’s free speech and press clauses. It had to be done.

President Abraham Lincoln had no real choice but to suspend habeas corpus in 1861, to maintain order and public safety in the divided country — or risk losing the country completely.

A night shot of the Lincoln Memorial in Washington, D.C.: Glynn Wilson

In the long run of history, however, this will hurt us all, I fear. Democrats need to understand that too. But then, never before in the history of this country has the president and commander-in-chief himself so threatened our way of life. A few of the founders imagined that day might come. They could never have imagined something so bad as this.

I wish I could get this president and those boys who follow him to understand, as I have often said, that violence only begets violence.

“Returning hate for hate multiplies hate, adding deeper darkness to a night already devoid of stars,” Martin Luther King Jr. once said. “Darkness cannot drive out darkness; only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate; only love can do that. Hate multiplies hate, violence multiplies violence, and toughness multiplies toughness in a descending spiral of destruction.”

A night view of the Martin Luther King Jr. Memorial on the National Mall in Washington, D.C.: Glynn Wilson

By supporting America’s first fascist dictator in the name of freedom, democracy and revolution, the people who screamed about democracy and freedom in their insurrection march to the U.S. Capitol on Wednesday carrying Trump and Confederate flags probably destroyed American freedom forever. Let that sink in. If you know one of them, tell them that. They won’t believe you, but tell them anyway.

“Violence as a way of achieving racial justice is both impractical and immoral. I am not unmindful of the fact that violence often brings about momentary results. Nations have frequently won their independence in battle,” Dr. King once said. “But in spite of temporary victories, violence never brings permanent peace.”

“The limitation of riots, moral questions aside, is that they cannot win and their participants (should) know it,” he also said. “Hence, rioting is not revolutionary but reactionary because it invites defeat. It involves an emotional catharsis, but it must be followed by a sense of futility.”

Dr. King’s wisdom was deeper even than many of his devoted followers know. We will be celebrating Martin Luther King Day on Monday, two days before President-elect Joe Biden will be sworn in as president, hopefully. We will celebrate Robert E. Lee Day no more.

Listen to this.

“Every man must decide whether he will walk in the light of creative altruism or in the darkness of destructive selfishness.”

This is our new mission here at the New American Journal. Will you walk with us in the light of creative altruism? Or will you try to kill us in the darkness of destructive selfishness?

It’s up to you. All we can do is tell the story.

Please share the link. Otherwise, how will people know?