On the evening of May 7th, 2024, I attended a city council meeting to hear Ed Torres, the president of the board at my place of worship, the Redlands Center for the Realization of Spirit, speak of the needs faced by the unsheltered here in Redlands, and how we are helping. Unfortunately, following that, we were then subjected to another public statement via zoom that was quite disturbing.
It was a man, whose name I will not repeat, which was, for all we know, not his actual name, who informed us that all the lies spread by Jews about the conditions at the Nazi’s Auschwitz concentration camp were simply untrue, and how it actually came equipped with a number of amenities that made it sound more like a summer church camp than a house of horrors.
He then went on to add that Jewish communists had capitalized on their so-called grievances only to make money, concluding with the statement that “Hitler was right,” and urging the council to pass a resolution declaring the holocaust a hoax.
Of course, I was instantly appalled, not used to hearing such talk at a Redlands city council meeting and was then overcome by a gut reaction that led me to burst out with this statement: “Cut off his mic!”
Wisely, mayor Eddie Tejeda then pointed out that, unfortunately, this man’s statement fell under the constitutionally protected right of “free speech,” which I knew, of course, but that did not temper the wounding and vile words we’d heard. Of course, it was also hate speech–which has always been an element in this country, despite the many claims that such talk is “not what we’re about.” Sometimes, it is.
Tellingly, this man had come to us via the technology of zoom, which hides the face, and is the modern-day, technological equivalent of how these voices used to conceal their identities: under white, hooded sheets.
Unfortunately, these days, certain prominent people have spoken up in ways that seem to have empowered people like this man to creep out from their crawl holes and give voice to such ideas–voices amplified by some in our media who cannot turn away from gratuitous violence and vile words.
Fortunately, one of the hopes I can find amid all the madness is this: it used to be that when a mob of white people hanged a black man for such crimes as whistling at a white woman, they would pose proudly, unmasked, in front of the dangling body for many of those photos you can see today on the internet.
Such photos don’t happen these days but make no mistake: that sentiment is still out there, hiding in the shadows, ready to pounce as it did during a rally with a current candidate for president of the United States (and now president) when he disparaged the first Somali/ emigre woman elected to Congress.
When he did that, he puffed up his chest; jutted his jaw; and remained silent as the mob began chanting “Send her back! Send her back!” To me it sounded exactly like another chant we could have heard a hundred years ago: “String her up! String her up!” as many black women were.
So, after shouting out for the city council to “Cut off his mic!” I knew I had to come here tonight and say to this mic that such words, from another of what Martin Luther King, Jr. called our “sick, white brothers,” cannot be met by silence, because, when they are, the sickness continues to spread. I invite you to please join me in speaking up. Thank you.
Phill Courtney has been a high school English teacher and twice a candidate for Congress with the Green party. His email is: pjcourntey1311@gmail.com