BILL CRAWFORD: America headed to civil war?

Published 11:00 am Sunday, August 21, 2022

So much for law and order.

First crazy Democrats denounced all police. “Defund police” was the cry. Now crazy Republicans denounce all FBI agents. “Defund FBI” is their cry. Both sides seem to seek no realistic outcome other than destroying respect for law and order.

That’s the way things are in loudmouth America today, where so many have hair trigger emotions. Don’t like something? Immediately denounce it, demean it, and demand its destruction. So what if it stirs dissension, anger, hatred, and violence?

So what? Well, the ultimate “what” will be riots, shootouts, and then civil war.

We’ve already seen riots from the left and from the right. We’ve already seen hate-motivated shootings. Unless cooler heads step in, violence will escalate. Already some hotheads are calling for civil war.

Few may remember the race riots and violent Vietnam War protests of the 1960s. Those of us who do, well, let’s just say those were scary times. I was attending American University and working part-time on the Hill in 1968 when the Easter riots broke out in Washington, D.C. Four days of burning, looting, and shooting hit the downtown not far from the White House following the April 4th assassination of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.

On April 5th President Lyndon B. Johnson invoked the Insurrection Act of 1807 and brought an estimated 13,700 federal and Army National Guard troops to assist the overwhelmed D.C. police force. Machine-gun armed Marines patrolled the Capitol while Army soldiers guarded the White House. Rioters got within two blocks of the White House before retreating. Combined federal and policy imposed a strict curfew, patrolled the streets, guarded looted areas, and provided aid. Reports showed 13 killed and about 1,000 injured. Most troops continued on duty through April 12th. Military.com reports this was the largest military occupation of an American city since the Civil War.

I can personally report that federal offices and most businesses shut down as the District of Columbia was locked down. Main arteries were closed. Vehicles trying to enter or exit the District on side streets were pulled over, searched for weapons and explosives, and turned back.

Pray such dark days are behind us. But it might not take much to spark the fire. Violence invoking diatribes and hotheads toting AR15s are not what America needs to settle things down.

Former Vice President Mike Pence gets it. He understands that our way of life depends upon law and order. “Calls to defund the FBI are just as wrong as calls to defund police,” he said last week. “Our party stands with the men and women who stand on the thin blue line at the federal, state, and local level.”

Democrats and Republicans, liberals and conservatives, brown and white, rich and poor, we are all Americans and should do our best to maintain a peaceful if argumentative coexistence.

“If you really keep the royal law found in Scripture, ‘Love your neighbor as yourself,’ you are doing right” – James 2:8.

Crawford is a syndicated columnist from Jackson.