Overview: On Tuesday, instead of watching Donald Trump’s State of the Union address, people can tune in to Rev. William J. Barber’s State of Our Union address on YouTube’s Black Star Network at 7:00 pm EST. Barber, a social activist and minister, will discuss the state of affairs for people of color and marginalized groups. He is known for his Moral Monday campaign, which mobilized nearly 2,000 people each week to push for progressive policy demands. Barber’s address is a clear call for resistance against Trump’s policies that do not serve the best interest of the people.
S. E. Williams
On Tuesday, we all have a choice. We can tune in to any one of the major television networks to watch Donald Trump as he lies his way through what is certain to be a nationalistic and grandly distorted perspective regarding the State of the Union.
Or, we can choose instead, to learn more about the current state of affairs as it relates to people of color and the nation’s other marginalized groups that are now dangerously susceptible to the tyrannical whims of a narcissistic megalomaniac and his nazi-leaning billionaire puppeteer. This alternative will provide moral insight instead, on how we continue to push back against Trump policies that do not serve the best interest of the people.
I’m sure many of us prefer to tune out altogether, but with life-impacting changes being discussed and/or implemented on a daily basis, it is probably best to at least catch the highlights.
While many in the nation are living life as if it is business as usual and/or celebrating what they hope will be a return to the days of overt and unbridled discrimination and limited social programs, others are pushing back every day in a multitude of ways against what has already occurred and an attempt to stop what may be in the pipeline as it relates to the defunding of social programs and the end to other initiatives that support the least among us.
One clear form of push-back and resistance is to tune-out the State of the Union address on Tuesday and instead tune-in to the State of Our Union on Youtube’s Black Star Network. Beginning at the same time Trump is scheduled to begin his State of the Union remarks–7:00 pm EST, Rev. William J. Barber, minister, social activist, professor in the Practice of Public Theology and Public Policy and founding director of the Center for Public Theology & Public Policy at Yale Divinity School, is set to deliver an address in New Haven, Connecticut to talk about the State of Our Union.
“You can’t have the levels of injustice that exist now and think the nation is built on a solid foundation. The issue is not a scarcity of money. It’s not a scarcity of ideas. The only issue is a scarcity of moral consciousness. And the only way that changes is for us to realize we have work to do. We will do it. We have to do it. Because we refuse to give up on the possibility of America.”
Rev. William Barber
Barber, perhaps best known for the Moral Monday campaign he began in 2013, as president of the North Carolina National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP). The campaign eventually spread to several states. Moral Monday was an act of civil disobedience where Barber mobilized nearly 2,000 people each week to participate in sit-ins as a way to push forward progressive policy demands.
Although the policies were categorized as “progressive,” by those who oppose them, others consider the policy demands part of the continuing quest for equity and opportunity in areas like education, healthcare, voting and labor rights, as well as a major call for criminal justice reform by demanding an end to the death penalty, among other issues.
The Moral Monday Campaign grew to see more than a hundred thousand people participate in rallies. It also became the “largest state government–focused civil disobedience campaign in American history.”
Because of Rev. Barber’s leadership as a minister and activist, coupled with his clearly articulated moral compass, he is referred to by some as the closet national leader in the Black community with a message similar to Martin Luther King, Jr.
Barber is also clear-eyed as it relates to the current state of the nation. In a January interview with The Root, he reminded all of us to keep things in perspective relative to Trump. “What is happening is bad, but it’s not as bad as when you had the entire Congress —Democrats and Republicans, the entire executive [branch], entire state legislatures — all committed to slavery or segregation.”
He certainly makes a good point in that regard, but it doesn’t mean he wants us to take our eyes off the prize.
On Tuesday, I will not be tuning in to Trump’s State of the “Maga” Union address. Instead, I will tune in to Rev. Barber and listen to his truthful counsel on the State of “Our” Union. I hope you’ll join me.
Of course, this is just my opinion. I’m keeping it real.