• COVID-19 Resources
  • About
  • Subscribe
  • Promotions
  • Advertise
  • Contact Us
  • March 30, 2023

Milwaukee Courier Weekly Newspaper

"THE NEWSPAPER YOU CAN TRUST SINCE 1964"

  • News
  • Editorials
  • Education
  • Urban Business
  • Health
  • Religion
  • Upcoming Events
  • Classifieds
EXCEPT WHERE INDICATED, THE OPINIONS EXPRESSED ON THIS PAGE ARE NOT NECESSARILY THOSE OF THE MILWAUKEE COURIER

Americans Have United Before to Defeat an External Enemy and we can Again

May 30, 2020

By Jesse Jackson

Jesse L. Jackson, Sr.

We live in a time of bitter divisions. Today, even the wearing of masks has become a partisan question.

Yet, as this Memorial Day weekend reminds us, this country has united before to meet external threats.

The calamity that has been wrought by the coronavirus is the result of an external attack — this time by a virus rather than an armed enemy. It too should be a time of national unity, of rallying together to share the sacrifices, to help one another through the crisis and to rebuild the country afterwards.

Today, however, it is too easy to slip into small-minded partisanship, or to hold onto ideological blinders, even when it has never been more important to revive the better angels of our spirit.

Consider that about 35 million people have filed for unemployment benefits, with millions more unemployed but not counted. Hundreds of thousands of small businesses have closed, never to open again.

Major retailers like JC Penny and J. Crew are declaring bankruptcy.

Manufacturing plants like Ford that reopened have had to close again as workers got struck by the virus. Major industries like the airlines are alive primarily because of assistance from the government and the Federal Reserve.

This stunning reality — beyond anything suffered since the Great Depression itself — takes massive human causalities. More than 100,000 people now have died from the virus itself, with tens of thousands more weakened or crippled from its ravages. But the casualties are far greater.

Homeowners and renters can’t pay their mortgages or rent. Graduates can’t stay up with their student loans. Small businesses exhaust their reserves and are forced to lay off the team of workers they have assembled. Front-line workers deal with staggering stress, while at constant risk of infection. States and localities faced with plummeting revenues and rising costs have started to lay off vital workers and cut vital services.

People are sensibly scared, worried and angry because of plans and hopes that were suddenly dashed through no fault of their own.

“This too should be a time of national unity, of
rallying together to share the sacrifices, to help one another through the crisis, and to rebuild the country afterwards,” write Jesse Jackson. Philip Pacheco/Getty Images

At this time, as in wartime, the government must act. It must act to organize our collective response to the attack, to organize needed medical and protective gear, to figure out testing and tracing strategies, to distribute health resources, to galvanize an all-out press for a remedy.

It must also act to limit the damage — to keep families in their homes, small businesses in their offices or stores, workers in their jobs. This cannot descend into partisan posturing.

In recent days, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell has stated that he feels no “urgency” to aid states and localities, suggesting that states could go bankrupt, and that the crisis was largely one of “blue-state” mismanagement.

Republican Sen. Lindsey Graham has stated that any extension of supplemental unemployment benefits would occur only over “our dead bodies.” McConnell dismissed the rescue package passed through the House as simply “aspirational” and adjourned the Senate until June.

The casualties are not partisan. They are Republican and Democrat, liberal and conservative, small business owners and small farmers, meat packers and more. They are disproportionately the most vulnerable: middle- and low-income families, the poor, the old, the sick. They are in red states and blue states.

McConnell knows this. Just as the causalities are not partisan, the response cannot be. Let us hope he is using this holiday break to think through a response that is of the scale necessary to meet the crisis. Let us hope that he can move from obstruction to negotiation, figuring out the compromises needed to move legislation through the Senate.

Most Americans would agree that aiding those who are unemployed through no fault of their own is not controversial. Some conservative Senate Republicans have joined with the most progressive House Democrats to champion a paycheck guarantee program that would support small business owners to pay their employees even when their businesses are locked down. That would enable workers to keep their benefits, get their pay and owners to sustain their teams.

That is neither a blue nor a red program, it is common sense.

Similarly, most Americans would agree that we have to ensure that everyone can get treatment and testing without worrying about how to pay for it. Most would agree that we shouldn’t bankrupt the post office. Most would agree that we have to make voting safe in the fall. Voting by mail is not a partisan agenda; it is a safety agenda.

This is a time when leaders must emerge, move beyond their comfort zone, and offer bold responses to a stark crisis. This is not a moment for posturing. It is a time for patriotism, for solidarity, for action. Let us hope that Memorial Day celebrations may help our leaders remember that challenge.

Share:

  • Facebook
  • Tweet
  • Email
  • Print

Popular Interests In This Article: Jesse Jackson, Reverend Jesse Jackson Sr

Read More - Related Articles

  • The Movement for Justice Will Not Be Deterred
  • Mandatory College Football Practices at Time of Pandemic are Nuts
  • ‘I Can’t Breathe – The Murder of George Floyd was a Lynching in Broad Daylight.’
  • The Right to Vote Should Not Fall Victim to Partisan Battles
  • The Medicare for All Debate is Long Overdue

View COVID-19 Resources

Become Our Fan On Facebook
Find Us On Facebook


Follow Us On Twitter
Follow Us On Twitter

Editorials

Lena Taylor
Lakeshia Myers
Rev Jesse Jackson Sr Ashanti Hamilton

Journalists

Mrinal Gokhale
Dylan Deprey
Karen Stokes
Hayley Crandall
Ana Martinez-Ortiz

Topics

Health Care & Wellness
Climate Change
Upcoming Events
Obituaries
Milwaukee NAACP

Politicians

Pres. Barack Obama
Gwen Moore
Tom Barrett
Milele A. Coggs
Spencer Coggs

Classifieds

Job Openings
Bid Requests
Req Proposals
Req Quotations
Apts For Rent

Contact Us

Milwaukee Courier
2003 W. Capitol Dr.
Milwaukee, WI 53206
Ph: 414.449.4860
Fax: 414.906.5383

Copyright © 2023 · Courier Communications | View Privacy Policy | Site built and maintained by Farrell Marketing Technology LLC
We use third-party advertising companies to serve ads when you visit our website. These companies may use information (not including your name, address, email address, or telephone number) about your visits to this and other websites in order to provide advertisements about goods and services of interest to you. If you would like more information about this practice and to know your choices about not having this information used by these companies, click here.