This commentary is by Rev. Devon Thomas, who serves the churches in Jeffersonville, Hyde Park and Bakersfield.
Lately I have been stewing over the national news and wondering how I should talk to my congregations about how a white supremacist gunman killed 10 people at a Tops Supermarket in Buffalo, New York, on May 14, or the Supreme Court’s draft letter supporting overruling Roe v. Wade, or the laws that are being passed limiting education about LGBTQ+ issues or race and racism in our country.
I look at all of this and see a severe infringement on the rights of Americans to live life well.
I feel these issues are all linked, but there is no grand conspiracy here; rather, it is the continued conflict we have seen throughout the history of our country to balance empathy and compassion with our identities as Americans.
Right now, a good portion of our country does not see the rest of America as being truly American. It seems there is a social wedge being driven through the heart of our country, allowing us to see each other as separate, frightening and evil. And while the calculation may be that driving this wedge through the heart of our democracy may bring in short-term gains and profit, the fundamental reality is that, when you drive a wedge through the heart of anything, you kill it.
Right now, we are living through a pandemic of hate, and I fear we are not taking it seriously. Here in Vermont, I feel that many of us feel isolated from the vitriol of our national discourse, but honestly, I do not think that is the case.
When we hear the news about the Tops Supermarket, I feel we must take this into context with what is happening here. The murder of Fern Feather, a transgender woman living in Morrisville, and the vandalizing of the Pride Center in Burlington are both fueled by the same type of hate that targeted Rep. Kiah Morris of Bennington in 2018, or Tabitha Moore, the Rutland County NAACP president who had to leave her home because of threats of violence in 2020.
I remember how neighbors turned against neighbors when people turned out to support Black Lives after George Floyd was murdered. And it is because I remember this that I feel what happened at Tops, and what is happening with the Supreme Court, and what is happening in statehouses and communities throughout our country, are simply a continuation of America’s struggle to recognize that having a right to life means nothing if your life has no value.
Every Sunday, I talk about a guy who told us that we need to let the last go first and the first go last (Matthew 20:16). I think this is a call to value others that should echo with Vermonters regardless of faith.
I understand that there are a lot of things nowadays that make us angry, or make us afraid. But just as the Tops Supermarket gunman was fueled by a misrepresentation of what diversity means to our country, I feel those misrepresentations are fueling hate in Vermont as well.
Right now, we need to stop listening to these voices of hate. Those who are sharing ideas that other Americans are somehow un-American, separate, or trying to replace us are not interested in bringing people together; rather, they are driving the wedge deeper.
We need to focus less on hating each other, and more on fixing our shared problems. Otherwise, what we saw at Tops is just going to keep happening until there is nothing of value left.
