Pay attention America!!!
I watch what is happening in Kenya with a growing sense of unease. First of course for my family and friends there, and the continued growing threat to their safety and well being, and we beg you to pray for peace and reconciliation.
Beyond that though I see great warnings for the US - the situation is not that different and what is happening there can and might happen here. I am not an alarmist. Let me lay out the situation:
You have a group of people who are in the minority and have a long history of feeling oppressed by the majority. Some of their brightest and best leaders were killed in the tumultuous days of the 60's and 70's. Within the country are large groups of poor, and among those a significant number of angry young men who already live life on the brink of violence. There are fringe groups throughout the country, fanatics, zealots with their strange beliefs - beliefs they are prepared to die for. And many people have weapons available. Throughout the country is a sense of unease, a restless frustration at the current political situation, a growing distrust of politicians as a whole. An election is held for President of the land. For the first time a candidate from the minority people group is running with a strong chance of winning. Early returns show him with victory - a delay in the official results - and then a losing verdict is announced. The angry poor - disenfranchised - erupt, looting and destroying, forcing the police and military to respond with force. Cries of corruption ring out across the globe, and the two political leaders draw their lines firmly - no compromise. Meanwhile the fringe groups, the freaks, come out of their holes to take advantage of the chaos, as they always do. Burning churches, settling old feuds (real or imagined), pursuing their delusions of cultural superiority by killing those different from themselves. And the middle class is a vast silent majority, paralyzed by it's own secret bias, locked into their homes for safety. Hundreds who live in areas dominated by the other side flee their homes. And so it goes.
Am I talking about America or Kenya?
Beyond that though I see great warnings for the US - the situation is not that different and what is happening there can and might happen here. I am not an alarmist. Let me lay out the situation:
You have a group of people who are in the minority and have a long history of feeling oppressed by the majority. Some of their brightest and best leaders were killed in the tumultuous days of the 60's and 70's. Within the country are large groups of poor, and among those a significant number of angry young men who already live life on the brink of violence. There are fringe groups throughout the country, fanatics, zealots with their strange beliefs - beliefs they are prepared to die for. And many people have weapons available. Throughout the country is a sense of unease, a restless frustration at the current political situation, a growing distrust of politicians as a whole. An election is held for President of the land. For the first time a candidate from the minority people group is running with a strong chance of winning. Early returns show him with victory - a delay in the official results - and then a losing verdict is announced. The angry poor - disenfranchised - erupt, looting and destroying, forcing the police and military to respond with force. Cries of corruption ring out across the globe, and the two political leaders draw their lines firmly - no compromise. Meanwhile the fringe groups, the freaks, come out of their holes to take advantage of the chaos, as they always do. Burning churches, settling old feuds (real or imagined), pursuing their delusions of cultural superiority by killing those different from themselves. And the middle class is a vast silent majority, paralyzed by it's own secret bias, locked into their homes for safety. Hundreds who live in areas dominated by the other side flee their homes. And so it goes.
Am I talking about America or Kenya?
Comments