Opinion: Now is the time to remembers oaths

Opinion: Now is the time to remembers oaths

If not now, when?

The time has long passed being able to say “this is just politics.”

Our country is in danger. It is not just an issue of gross failure of governance during the pandemic which has caused the unnecessary deaths of tens of thousands of our fellow citizens or even the authoritarian effort to control health data. Now we are watching chilling steps which descend to a police state.

Armed men in camouflage with the inaccurate stencil of “police” invaded public places ostensibly to protect public monuments and buildings which were not being threatened; untrained in policing, they used military tactics against people exercising their free speech rights, seizing them without probable cause, refusing to identify themselves and generally acting like those South American cartel mobsters. This private army of the attorney general is unresponsive to local or state demands to cease and desist.

Without any request from local or state officials, this lawlessness will soon move to other cities which the president has targeted and labelled “lawless.” Reports say Chicago is next. Why is this happening? Since there is no real threat to law and order and these militia are unwanted, it is evident that this federal action is meant to support President Donald Trump’s “law and order” re-election platform and divert attention away from mismanagement of the viral epidemic.

We have all seen this movie before — the one where the brown shirts wield their batons and break the plate glass windows and raise their arms in salute.

I ask our senators to remember their oaths of office, the part where they swore to defend our constitution. I hope, as events have unfolded, they lie awake at night also remembering that oath the times we live in have brought into stark relief. If the oath is not just words, what does it mean to live that oath? What are the actions they are called to take?

This is the time to live their oath and if not now, when?

Margo Waring,

Juneau