Why must Our Heroes be peaceful?

Why must our heroes be peaceful?

Every year in school for a week or so, we were taught about the great inventors and business people. We heard of great leaders, activists and our many, many, many entertainers. All of whom were presented as peacemakers or peace keepers. There are a few notable showcases for contrast, absolutely, but by and large it is always the *nice* ones we prefer to focus on.

We were taught of the peaceful sit ins and the quiet woman on the bus who just said no. The boycotts and the March to Washington.

But--why must our heroes be peaceful?

Our heroes--the ones who made the great voyage and stepped foot on pride rock, who were brave and noble in their effort to build a new world-- did it while murdering millions of indigenous men women and children. But why must *our* heroes be peaceful?

Our heroes--the ones who wrote our constitution and bare the moniker of "founding fathers"-- beat, stole, sold, enslaved and killed generations of innocent men, women, and children, then deliberately proliferated this for profit. But why must *our* heroes be peaceful?

Our heroes--the ones that chose to go to war with our neighbors; a civil war, to uphold the economic bedrock of our nation and the birth of modern capitalism, here. The one whose emancipation was a blatant battle tactic--but why must *our* heroes be peaceful?

Our heroes--when fallen victim to unforgivable atrocities, agreed to defend our great nation--dropped two bombs killing as many as 225,000 civilians in a blink of an eye. They received a parade. But why must *our* heroes remain peaceful?

Our heroes--mothers, fathers, brothers and sisters who fought for their rights in this great nation--threw eggs, bricks, and glass bottles at children as they rode the bus to school. But why must *our* heroes remain peaceful?

Our heroes--who were told to protect our democracy by any means necessary--marched with confederate battle flags, "trump" flags, anti-Semitic insignia, and with force broke through gates and doors in an attempt to capture and murder elected officials in the halls of our nation's capital, all for the preservation of white supremacy. But why must *our heroes remain peaceful?

Have you ever thought of how much of your life of luxury, and the privilege in your lineage, can be traced back to a peaceful hero?

As someone who has been referred to as a "Black Militant" (Militant - noun: combative and aggressive in support of a political or social cause, and typically favoring extreme, violent, or confrontational methods) this is a question I've been tossing around in my head a lot since the the early months of 2020.

And then I read this excerpt from something Dr. King wrote:

"I must confess that over the last few years I have been gravely disappointed with the white moderate. I have almost reached the regrettable conclusion that the Negro's great stumbling block in his stride toward freedom is not the White Citizen's Counciler or the Ku Klux Klanner, but the white moderate, who is more devoted to "order" than to justice; *who prefers a negative peace which is the absence of tension* to a positive peace which is the presence of justice; who constantly says: "I agree with you in the goal you see, but I cannot agree with your methods of direct action"."

This is why *our* heroes must be peaceful, while our heroes rarely were.