Don't Lose Your Identity

Don’t Lose Your Identity

By

Bishop Melvin L. Maughmer, Jr.

PRAYER

SCRIPTURES: - Genesis 27 1-5 & 34-38, John 10:10, Matthew 4:6 & 8-10, Proverbs 6:31

OPENING: - Donald Trump began February 2025 with a proclamation that Black History Month offered “an occasion to celebrate the contributions of so many Black American patriots who have indelibly shaped our nation’s history” sounds good but immediately I was reminded of the story of the scorpion and the frog. The scorpion asked the frog to carry him across the river the frog said no at first because the scorpion would sting him, the scorpion said if I did that we both would drown after some hesitation and thinking about it the frog agreed to carry the scorpion across the river, half way across the scorpion stung the frog, the frog said I thought you wouldn’t sting me the scorpion said but that is my character. The morale of the story, listen to a person’s character more than the words coming out of their mouth, because they will show who they really are regardless of what they say. In the closing days of the month, he hosted a Black History Month reception at the White House where he promised he would fight for Black Americans. However, what he did not mention during his remarks was that the proclamation and reception came amidst a systemic crusade to dismantle the civil rights infrastructure that Black Americans helped build and that sustains our hopes for equal citizenship. The resegregation of America by those who fear racial equality have always understood the importance of silencing history that gives people hope, determination and the means to build a better future. The Whitewashing is clear and extremely dangerous to an inclusive democracy and with his oligarchy and cabinet of extreme loyalist they will attempt to destroy Black history and Black and Brown futures at the highest levels taking away our liberties, rights, history and anything else they can strip from us.

Just look at what is happening:- Medicare and Medicaid messed up, Social Security is being tampered with, Federal Employees livelihood interrupted, the stoppage of USAID which is to help people basically of color with the ability to have health care and food and helping countries to respond to infectious disease outbreaks and other public health crises, the Department of Education being dismantled the Education Department disburses Title I funds to elementary and secondary schools with large low-income student enrollments; collects data on schools; oversees the recognition of accrediting agencies and programs that support higher education institutions; protects students against racial and sex-based discrimination; and manages student financial aid assistance programs, including loans and grants, other schools are told they will lose funding if they teach Black History, affirmative action programs have been abolished, called illegal and racist, the Chairman of the Joint Chief of Staff an African American 4 star General Charles Q. Brown Jr. the nation’s highest-ranking military officer, and the principal military advisor to the President, Secretary of Defense, and National Security Council, who served in a variety of positions at the squadron and wing levels, including an assignment to the U.S. Air Force Weapons School as an F-16 Fighting Falcon Instructor. His notable staff tours include Aide-de-Camp to the Chief of Staff of the Air Force and Director of the Secretary of the Air Force and Chief of Staff Executive Action Group. His joint assignments include three assignments to U.S. Central Command as Air Operations Officer, Current Operations Division; Deputy Director, Operations Directorate; and Deputy Commander, is fired after installing the least qualified and an embarrassment to any member who was ever in the military uniform, the Secretary of Defense to lead the Pentagon Pete Hegseth. Then you have the racist, apartheid grown and bread, south African Elon Musk running around with a chain saw on stage dismantling everything in his path under the lie of government efficiency now has the audacity and blatant ignorance pushing to have Derek Chauvin pardoned which would literally send us back over 400 years. They have moved swiftly to censure Rep. Al Green, the only Democrat to stand and speak out against the lies Trump was telling in his address to congress on Tuesday they even had 10 Democrats vote with Republicans to have him censured.

This systematic resegregation has grave implications for people of color and sadly, the enemies of freedom, justice, and the standard of equality have sought to erase history so that past injustices cannot be connected to present inequities. If Americans do not reflect on slavery’s enduring legacy, on Reconstruction and its violent backlash, on Jim Crow and its transformation into modern mass incarceration, on the Charles Lynch laws, then they cannot fully understand why racial injustice persists today and they will not be equipped to fight it. That is why it is imperative that we fight to keep our rights and most of all not lose our identity.