UNITY WITHOUT ACCOUNTABILITY
It is one thing for President Joe Biden to call for unity but it is a much different thing for those who enabled Donald Trump for four of the ugliest and most divisive years in presidential history to call for it as though they have earned it and have the moral authority to demand it. They certainly haven’t earned it and without concrete signs of repentance – such as admitting the obvious truth that Joe Biden won the election fairly and squarely – unity should not be on the table.

UNITY WITHOUT ACCOUNTABILITY
Black folks know well what unity among White opponents without accountability means since it was not that long ago in our history, after millions of folks were killed in a rebellion started and lost by White Southerners to prolong slavery, that Reconstruction, a program instituted by Abraham Lincoln to uplift and protect freed slaves, was abruptly terminated after less than a dozen years as part of a compromise between Northern Whites and the Southern White rebels, who were forgiven their trespasses and given full citizenship at the expense of Black gains. Dasia Moore described what happened in a Boston Sunday Globe article (January 17, 2009). She wrote: “The consequences of forcing unity under such circumstances fall disproportionately on marginalized communities…For the most threatened by violent ideologies, forgiveness without accountability is “a perpetuation of the original wrong.” As for Reconstruction, she was even more precise, writing: “…the white South wanted “reconciliation” in the form of absolution for their rebellion and a return to power over the region and its Black inhabitants…Federal oversight of the former Confederacy faded away. Rebel generals were granted amnesty. Plantation land was returned to enslavers. Civil rights legislation was struck down or ignored, not to be revived until the 1960s. Sharecropping and vagrancy laws worked in tandem to effectively reinstitute the cruelties and privation of slavery. Black Americans’ political and financial gains were all but wiped out by legal discrimination and unrestrained racist violence….North and South were unified, but under the banner of white supremacy….That trade-off between justice and unity for some Americans at the expense of others allowed racial grievance and white supremacy to persist….” And the racial issues that arose out of that “great compromise” have still not been resolved which is why Black folks are rightfully wary of President Biden’s emphasis on “unity.” The question we have for him is “What precisely, Mr. President, do you mean by “unity?”

ACTIONS HAVE CONSEQUENCES
“Following the deadly insurrection (in the nation’s Capitol), a significant number of Republicans across the country have left the GOP. More than 200 Republicans in Lancaster County, PA, have changed their party registration, while about 50 voters in Linn County, Iowa, dropped their Republican Party affiliations in the 48 hours after the Capitol attack….In Orange County, Calif., the Republican Party lost eight times more voters than it gained after the violence in D.C. with 600 GOP voters lost from Wednesday to Friday after the Capitol riots.” (Boston Herald, January 14, 2021)

ACTIONS HAVE CONSEQUENCES
“Trump’s approval rating tumbled to just 29% in the Pew survey days after a violent mob laid siege to the Capitol, shattering windows, ransacking rooms and sending lawmakers fleeing for their lives….Three quarters of Pew respondents said Trump “bears at least some responsibility” for the Capitol violence – with 52% saying he bears “a lot” of responsibility, 23% saying “some” responsibility and 24% saying none at all….More than two-thirds of Pew survey respondents said Trump should not continue to be a major national political figure after he leaves office….” (Boston Herald, January 16, 2021)

ACTIONS HAVE CONSEQUENCES
“Lawyers for the city of Detroit last week asked a federal judge in Michigan’s Eastern District to reprimand the lawyers who brought one of the lawsuits alleging fraud – including Sidney Powell and L. Lin Wood, who worked with the Trump campaign – and to refer them for disbarment and impose financial penalties….Separately, Michigan’s…attorney general, Dana Nessel, has said she may seek sanctions against lawyers who filed lawsuits against the state’s election results….Dominion Voting Systems sued Ms Powell on Friday for libel and slander over her accusations that it rigged the election…” (The Wall Street Journal, January 13, 2021)

ACTIONS HAVE CONSEQUENCES
“The moves in Michigan against pro-Trump attorneys come as Rudy Giuliani, Mr. Trump’s personal lawyer, is facing calls for discipline or disbarment in at least five states, along with a New York State Bar Association inquiry into revoking his membership over his baseless claims and what the organization described as his encouragement of the riot that overtook the Capitol….” (The Wall Street Journal, January 13, 2021)

ACTIONS HAVE CONSEQUENCES
“Longtime GOP lawyer Cleta Mitchell resigned from a prominent national law firm last week amid outcry over her role on a phone call during which Mr. Trump pressured Georgia’s secretary of state to reverse the election results. (The Wall Street Journal, January 13, 2021)

ACTIONS HAVE CONSEQUENCES
“Former Michigan Gov. Rick Snyder, his health director and other officials have been told they’re being charged after a new investigation of the Flint water scandal, which devastated the majority Black city with lead-contaminated water and was blamed for a deadly outbreak of Legionnaires’ disease. (Officials) switched the city’s water to the Flint River in 2014 as a cost-saving step while a pipeline was being built to Lake Huron. The water, however, was not treated to reduce corrosion – a disastrous decision affirmed by state regulators that caused lead to leach from old pipes and spoil the distribution system used by nearly 100,000 residents.” (Boston Herald, January 2021) The allegation is that the officials knew of the poisoning long before they informed the public.

CITY POLICE LEADERS CRITICIZE REFORM BILL
Even as it has been watered down to accommodate concerns of the governor and the law enforcement lobby, the Springfield Police Commissioner and police union officials went public with their opposition to it. Why their opposition made headlines, I’ll never know because, even in its watered down form, the bill far exceeds the minimalist reforms that Commissioner Clapprood claims she is making in the wake of a crushing federal report on Springfield police misbehavior. The state bill is a well-intended effort at real uniform police reform and a step in the right direction, which is why one might not be surprised by Springfield police leaders’ opposition to it, which is why wholesale change at the top leadership in the Springfield Police Department is a must for true reform. In lieu of such, state law will do for now.

YOU GOT TO GIVE IT TO THE REPUBLICAN
I was stunned to see page 4 of The Republican Opinion page of January 8, 2021, two days after the insurrection at the Capitol by a Trump-inspired mob. It left nothing to the imagination. “Traitors” was the blaring headline that seemed so out of character for what many see as a moderately conservative newspaper. And they displayed a half page full of pictures of public officials whom they were making reference to and, below it, a photo of the Capitol mob in action and a definition of “trai.tor (n) 1: one who betrays another’s trust or is false to an obligation or duty 2: one who commits treason.” And just below were the names of Publisher George Arwady, Executive Editor Cynthia Simison, Associate Editor Raymond E. Kelly and Manager, Reader Engagement, Robert Genest. What a bold statement!

THE MAYORAL RACE WILL BE HOT!
Not the Springfield mayoral race but the Boston race that will be hotly contested as Boston Mayor Marty Walsh leaves for Washington to assume his Presidential appointment as Labor Secretary. It will be a war and the outcome will probably result in Boston’s first mayor of color. Springfield has a lot of catching up to do.

“MAYOR DEEMS RACISM A PUBLIC HEALTH CRISIS”
The above headline was in The Republican on January 19th. Would that it came from the mayor of Springfield who seems to live under the illusion that Springfield’s government under his charge is devoid of racism. West Springfield Mayor William Reichelt is “ordering all town departments to examine their operations with an eye toward encouraging racial equity.” He is reported in The Republican as saying, “West side’s a very diverse community, and this is a conversation that needs to happen on a larger scale. This is going to be a hard conversation.” What a breath of fresh air! ■