Pastor Del: My thoughts on The Insurrection

Pastor Del Phillips

I spent the past few days gathering my thoughts since last Wednesday, January 6th, the now infamous day that will be remembered by many as an insurrection against democracy.   Others will remember that day as an outcry for justice albeit their cries for justice are distorted because they were inspired by a lie birthed from the highest ranks of national leadership. 

Without the captions or commentary, the videos that splashed on media screens across the world without question would have represented an uprising in a third world country unfamiliar with democracy.  Unfortunately, we must accept the truth that the violation of our nation’s capital came from within our ranks.

We are left with more remnants of a divided nation that began seeing signs of its splinter’s weeks after the first Black man was elected President of the most powerful country in the free world.  We did not find our harmony and unite as Americans after he was re-elected to a second term.  Instead there was an acceleration to the opposing extreme to insure someone could unravel the legacy of President Obama’s legacy.

More than anytime in our life cycle we are faced to reckon with the existence of more than one America.  Black Americans have no history of storming the capitals of its oppressors or descending to violence because the rest of the country refused to elect someone of our liking.  In the other America, the events of January 6th are far from being the first display of White anger refusing to peacefully settle its disputes with its counterparts.  The privilege of White power allows infighting and tolerates insurrectionist as the rest of America continues to fight poverty, education inequity, homelessness, and the pandemic that still has the disenfranchised in its crosshairs.

“Where do we go from here”, some have asked.  Again, that question comes from privilege.  Those asking don’t have to live to fight for the life they want every day and those that are in the fight already know – we live to fight another day.

Pastor Del Phillips is the Chair of the Colorado Black Leadership Coalition and the Board of the Denver Urban League.