My Letter to Congressman Lamborn on the need for a National Truth and Conciliation Commission
After Floyd, Abery, Breonna Taylor
The Honorable Doug Lamborn
United States House of Representatives
2371 Rayburn HOB
Washington, DC 20515
Phone: (202) 225–4422
5/27/2020
Dear Congressman Lamborn,
As a person of faith, and as a minister, I am writing to urge you to help establish a National Truth and Conciliation Commission in light of the recent and ongoing acts of police brutality and violence against people of color.
What happened recently with the four officers in Minneapolis has broken my heart. It is an outrage. And I must speak out and urge those with power to act. The best act I can think of is to create a Commission so we can engage the truth, the truth about police violence against people of color and the dangers of being black in the United States.
It is not, of course, just police violence. The hunting down and murder of Ahmaud Arbery is just a week old or so. The incident involving Amy Cooper calling 911 in Central Park was just a few days ago. Then Minneapolis. It is all too much to bear. Thank God for video that shows the truth.
A national commission will enable us to speak the truth and to begin the long hard work of binding ourselves back together again. I think of those nearly sacred words: “in order to form a more perfect union.” Our goal is to always work to create anew and anew a more perfect union. Our union is broken, in heart and mind and spirit. We can and must do better.
Congressman, I know you are staunchly pro-life. I know you believe that every human life has inherent value and dignity regardless of stage of development, race, age, gender, or ability.
This is why you’d be a perfect person to get behind such a national commission. What is more life-giving than a process to hear each other and to begin to heal what divides us.
Why a commission on truth and conciliation?
We must hear the truth, all of us. The truth will set us free, and right now we are in bondage, the bondage of separation, the bondage of hatred, the bondage of blind inattention. The truth will set us free.
Conciliation is an alternative dispute resolution (ADR) process whereby the parties to a dispute use a conciliator, who meets with the parties both separately and together in an attempt to resolve their differences. We white people must hear, honestly and frankly, the stories of our brothers and sisters who are black and brown and the terror they face, as Ahmaud Arbery faced it, as George Floyd faced it. We must hear it. Breonna Taylor, we must hear it. For those who have ears to hear. We must hear it. A national commission is what we need to hear one another and to live in peace.
I wrote about this for the Gazette in October 2016. Below my signature is my take on where we are with racial relations. I specifically wrote about the national anthem protests, but the ideas inside the article are still relevant.
Please email me at RevRogerB@msn.com. Please call me day or night at 719–433–3135. Let’s talk about this. Let’s pray together about this. Let’s discern together. The time is now. The time is now. The time is now.
In faith and in hope,
Rev. Roger Butts
Colorado Springs, CO 80905
Question: Are the national anthem protests justified?
By Roger Butts
Colorado Springs Gazette, October 9, 2016
Not only are the national anthem protests justified, they are important.
The American experiment is established on the idea of “out of many, one.” The national anthem protests are an attempt by one part of the many to cry out to the rest of us that something is amiss. When such protests occur, it is incumbent upon the rest of us to do all in our power to listen, to stay open and say, “Tell me about your experience.” Then, our many will be one.
LeBron James and I both have 12-year-old sons. LeBron James says that he worries about his son driving and being stopped by a police officer and what may happen as a result. That experience is very different from mine. My worries extend only to my son’s ability to drive with care, for his sake and those around him.
As a white person, I need to hear Lebron James’s worry. I need to listen well. The protests point to this inequity and say, “America, we can do better.”
We all have our internal biases. We all have blind spots. But these protests are shedding light on systemic racism and violence our citizens are experiencing every day of their lives.
Humility, awareness, and political imagination are required. But first we need a dose of honesty about the situation we are facing.
We live in the time of the new Jim Crow, established with the ill-fated War on Drugs. Michelle Alexander writes, “Rather than combat drug activity, the War on Drugs has served as a deliberate strategy to control people of color and remove them from the political process.”
America is now the world’s leading jailer; we have approximately 5 percent of the world’s population and 25 percent of its prisoners. Felons are discriminated against in many ways and kept out of the political process. 33 percent of black men can expect to be incarcerated at some point in their lifetime. This number is only 5 percent for white men.
We have never had so many Americans deprived of their liberty in our entire history, and those are disproportionately persons of color.
We live in a time of police militarization and police brutality. More than 800 have died this year alone from police shootings. Many of them were black and brown, unarmed and mentally ill. Most alarming in this increase is the number of officers who have received no punishment.
These things call to be protested. When folks kneel during the national anthem, they are begging America to listen, to pay attention. “Please,” they say, “listen to a part of the population that feels abused and unheard.” The silent protests shout at us to listen. They cry out regarding crucially important matters.
In September, Officer Betty Shelby in Tulsa shot an unarmed man. She says in that moment she was deaf. It seems the perfect metaphor.
America has gone deaf about police violence. The protests are begging us — all of us — to listen. May we listen well. And in listening, become out of many, one.
