America Rewards Treachery
April 9 was the one hundred and sixtieth anniversary of Robert E. Lee’s surrender to Ulysses S. Grant at Appomattox, Virginia.
The surrender marked the end of a horrendous civil war fought over slavery and leaving 700,000 soldiers dead.
August 8 will be the fifty-first anniversary of President Richard Nixon’s resignation from office to avoid impeachment and removal from office for his part in the Watergate scandal.
On January 6, just over four years ago, a rebellious mob stormed the US Capitol, leading to several deaths and almost $3 million worth of damage.
What do these three events have in common?
The fact that the ringleaders of these acts of treason got off with their lives and minimal or no prison time.
The United States of America has always placed a premium on freedom and liberty around the world.
We fought two world wars, and countless other wars and military conflicts with the supposed goal of ending tyranny and establishing freedom.
We have cajoled communists and derided dictators.
We have aided and abetted the deaths of political leaders around the world to “safeguard” freedom.
After World War II, we led the International Military Tribunal in Nuremberg, Germany to bring high-ranking Nazis to trial and executed them for crimes against humanity.
But how do we punish American traitors?
We name military installations after them.
We erect statues and monuments to commemorate them.
Jefferson Davis, the President of the Confederacy, was captured before the end of the war, imprisoned for two years, and then released. He spent the rest of his life trying to justify the rebellion.
After he resigned from office, Richard Nixon was pardoned from prosecution by his replacement, President Gerald Ford. He spent the rest of his life authoring books and trying to rehabilitate his image.
An estimated 2,000-2,500 people invaded the US Capitol on January 6, 2021. 1,424 people were charged with federal crimes, 1,010 pled guilty, and 1,060 were sentenced.
The sitting president and his congressional co-conspirators never served time in jail, even though the bipartisan select committee determined the president had a seven-point plan to overturn a lawful election.
We know the rest of the story. He ran for reelection and to our everlasting disgrace, was reelected.
His Department of Justice is now saying that some January 6 defendants whose cases were “invalidated” and vacated deserve to get restitution refunds.
The DOJ said that there’s “no longer any basis justifying the government’s retaining funds.”
Rioters who fought and seriously injured police officers, smeared feces inside the Capitol, took over government offices, and threatened to lynch the Vice President of the United States are likely to receive financial compensation.
But reparations for Black descendants of chattel slavery are unreasonable and unjustified.
Guaranteed health care for citizenry is outrageous, but naming military installation after enslavers and slavery justifiers is prudent.
Programs that ensure fair and equitable treatment of non-Whites and women are unfair, but giving money to treasonous White rabble is fair and equitable.
It’s no wonder that America elected a president who destroying the country from within.
The way we deal with treachery wouldn’t scare off an alley cat.
We fete and lionize traitors.
We allow them to rebuild their public image by authoring books.
We permit them to earn money with speaking engagements.
We allow them the freedom to run for reelection and reelect them so they can demolish the republic.
If the republic does survive this administration, it will not be enough to have a Truth and Reconciliation Commission like they had in post-Apartheid South Africa.
It will not suffice to let “bygones be bygones.”
It will not be enough to pardon, forgive, and try to forget.
It will be time for long, and in some cases, lifetime imprisonment.
For some, it may be appropriate to mete out worse punishment.