The United States of America has had for too many years a long standing human rights problem with white supremacist racism. It is a shame and disgrace to a great nation, founded on the ideals of equality and liberty. As the President recently indicated, this human rights travesty is one that has taken generations to change and continues to require our commitment to change. Americans must step up to this human rights challenge to end such racial inequality, discrimination, hatred, and violence, and leave it in the past.

Respect for racial equality, dignity, justice, and liberty remains one of the most important patriotic values for Americans. American patriots cannot hate people because of their race or identity group. Such racial hatred is contempt for the “truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.” Such white supremacist racial hatred is a denial of the very identity of America itself.

American patriots must also reject those who have contempt for the Constitution of the United States and our shared national laws. Such racist hatred routinely objects to fundamental Constitutional and legal standards which all Americans have as protections and responsibilities. White supremacist racial hatred has a contempt for the Constitution of the United States of America, and most racial hate groups actively oppose the U.S. Constitution Amendment 13 (ending slavery), Amendment 14 (ensuring citizenship for all people ” born or naturalized in the United States” including former slaves) and Amendment 15 (the right for vote can not be denied “on account of race, color, or previous condition of servitude”).

Furthermore, the 14th Amendment to the Constitution also provides that those who have taken a vow to support the Constitution,  but “have engaged in insurrection or rebellion against the same, or given aid or comfort to the enemies thereof,” are not to be given the privilege of holding federal government office or state government office positions. Specifically, Constitutional Amendment 14, Section 3 states: “No person shall be a Senator or Representative in Congress, or elector of President and Vice-President, or hold any office, civil or military, under the United States, or under any State, who, having previously taken an oath, as a member of Congress, or as an officer of the United States, or as a member of any State legislature, or as an executive or judicial officer of any State, to support the Constitution of the United States, shall have engaged in insurrection or rebellion against the same, or given aid or comfort to the enemies thereof.”  This clause of the Constitution is still in operation today, and it remains the law of the land.

Racist groups have repeatedly objected to the law of the land, including the Civil Rights Act of 1866 (14 Stat. 27-30), Enforcement Act of 1871 (17 Stat. 13) to defy the Ku Klux Klan (and unreasonable search and seizure used in police brutality cases) – parts which continue under 42 U.S.C. § 1983: Civil action for deprivation of rights, Civil Rights Act of 1957, (Pub.L. 85–315, 71 Stat. 634), Civil Rights Act of 1960 (Pub.L. 86–449, 74 Stat. 89), Civil Rights Act of 1964 (Pub.L. 88–352, 78 Stat. 241), Voting Rights Act of 1965 (52 U.S.C. § 10101), Civil Rights Act of 1968, (Pub.L. 90–284, 82 Stat. 73), and the Civil Rights Act of 1991 (Pub. L. 102-166).

In addition to ensuring the legal right to fair housing, the Civil Rights Act of 1968 law states that it is a federal crime (18 U.S.C. § 245(b)(2)) to “by force or by threat of force, injure, intimidate, or interfere with anyone …by reason of their race, color, religion, or national origin.”

Nearly 400,000 American patriots died fighting against racism, as Union soldiers during the Civil War, which brought the end to slavery. 400,000. So many died, they could not find graves for them all, and many were buried in Arlington Cemetery.  Yet even that horrible sacrifice, as many American patriots fighting against racist slavery who died, as all Americans who died in World War II fighting Hitler and the Axis powers, was still not enough.  We needed to create law after law to change the United States of America, and we did. Yet we continue the war, not “between the states,” but against white supremacists which still is not yet at an end in this nation. Yet, American patriots must realize that we cannot be truly an effective nation “with liberty and justice for all” until we WIN THIS WAR. We must bring it to an end, and it must be the goal of all American patriots.

If we begin with the starting point that American patriots must by their values, by their law, and in honor of our fallen heroes, defy and challenge white supremacist racial hatred and injustice, then we must ask ourselves why is it taking so many generations to heal this wound of racism on our nation’s soul? Why must we be so patient about it? Why aren’t more patriots incensed and furious over every new racist attack, not only on those victims who are racial minorities, but also on values and standards of our nation? Too many have tolerated parts of this nation to have a twisted nostalgia for Confederate racial hatred. Too many have allowed those with white supremacist activism to go unchallenged.

The idea that all we need to end this contempt for our shared human rights and dignity needs is more time, more generations, must be unacceptable to American patriots.

Is there a greater enemy to the United States of America than the white supremacist racism ideology, which led to as many deaths in a war as all wars  combined, with over 400,000 American Union soldiers fighting against slavery?   What greater enemy could there be than one that has led to the death of so many, and which actively sought the division of the United States itself?  What more clearly defined insurrection could there be than an enemy which sought to secede from the United States itself?

Certainly a starting point would be any member of the American federal or state government who supports or gives aid to white supremacist groups opposed to our Constitution, as well as those who support or give aid to the enemy Confederate States of America (CSA) ideology and its symbols of hatred, which rebelled against the United States government.  Any such federal or state government individual needs to be removed from office.  They have no place in any role in any part of any government in this nation, as Amendment 14 of the U.S. Constitution clearly states.

Let us end our patience with the injustice and evil of white supremacist racism.  Let us expect that any leader of our nation, including any presidential candidate, which does not have such impatience towards ending white supremacist racism, must not be given any leadership role.

Our current President states that the measures of racism are not just one slanderous term, and of course he is right, that the challenge is not only “overt discrimination,” but also every aspect of institutional discrimination in this great nation. But where I believe the President is wrong is in the view that we must be patient, where he states “Societies don’t, overnight, completely erase everything that happened 200 to 300 years prior.”

While we cannot erase the past, we can change the present and build for the future.

American patriots must be reminded not only can we change the racist present, but we must change the racist present. It is our RESPONSIBILITY. But we need to do more than condemn, dismiss, or reject white supremacist racism. We are not a passive nation with a passive culture. We are and always be a nation of action. If anything, perhaps the idea that we can get away with “passively” challenging white supremacist racism is one of our greatest national mistake.

Active Defiance of Racism is our patriotic responsibility as Americans.

This defiance of racism is not just when it is convenient, or pleasant, or when it involves someone we don’t know. Our challenge to racist organizations, leaders, and ideologies must use our voices, our freedoms, and our defense of our nation to defy and challenge the hatred of racial minorities, including removing such racism from every area of public life in government, public organizations, religion, and society, with no exceptions.

While the Civil War ended 150 years ago, we have known for decades that the war against white supremacist racism has not yet ended. We must the finish the struggles of those who came before us, and not let this disease of white supremacist hate spread to yet another generation. Let us end it here. It would be the American thing to do.

Let us be – in every way – Responsible for Equality And Liberty.