The Freedom From Religion Foundation’s home state has been the site of a string of horrendous events over the past 24 hours.
We at FFRF woke up first to learn that Jacob Blake, shot in the back at close range seven times Sunday afternoon by a police officer in Kenosha, Wis., will be paralyzed and is struggling for his life. Then came the horrifying breaking news that an unknown vigilante has shot to death two protesters in Kenosha last night, wounding a third. The Freedom From Religion Foundation is based in Madison, Wis., so the Kenosha shootings bring the targeting of Black Americans by police and racial inequalities close to home.
FFRF works to uphold the principles embodied in our secular Constitution, whose preamble, investing sovereignty not in a divinity but in “We the People,” promises “the United States [will] promote the general welfare, and secure the blessings of liberty to ourselves and our posterity.”
It has long been noted that the Constitution, so brilliant yet so flawed at its inception — denying citizen rights to Blacks, Native Americans, women and even white men without property at the time it was adopted — is aspirational. “We the People” have had more than 200 years to form a “more perfect union.” The centennial of the adoption of the 19th Amendment guaranteeing women the right to vote is truly a time to celebrate progress in perfecting an imperfect document. But we must also remember that after 1920, many Black, Asian-American and Native American women were denied the vote based solely on their race; for all too many that right was taken away until the Voting Rights Act was passed in 1965. In 2013, the Supreme Court invalidated a key part of the Voting Rights Act, endangering this right of citizenship.
Our country is running out of time to prove we are indeed “the land of the free,” as our national anthem claims.
Image via Shutterstock By Aaron of L.A. Photography
