Why I Ain’t Afraid of No ISIS

I’m not saying that ISIS is not real. I’m just saying that my life is a series of priorities in which ISIS is considerably lower on the ‘fear inducing scale’ than a number of other things. Here are a few:

1. I live in a country in which a considerable number of people consider Donald Trump a viable candidate for leader of the free world.

2. I live in a country in which the water supply of an entire city can be poisoned to the degree that children and adults alike will experience lifelong negative results, and of the myriad people who knew about it and did nothing to impede much less stop it, none of them are in jail or the face of the campaign to bring back public flogging.

3. I live in a country where you can have videos of boys that look like my sons be riddled with taxpayer sponsored bullets by agents of the state, and we continue to replay the video to determine what the dead victim did to provoke the person with the gun, the bullet proof vest, and the support of other similarly armed agents, rather than hold the murderer accountable under the law. And the process by which these murderers are set free and continue to be paid by taxpayer dollars (grand juries) is a secret farce with as much credibility and transparency as the middle names of all the Knights of Templar.

4. I live in a country in which health care is a privilege and a benefit, meted out in increments to stave off death as opposed to care for health and wellness.

5. I live in a country in which based on my income, engagement with the criminal justice system is more likely to result in a lifelong usurping of rights rather than an uncovering of truth in the pursuit of justice.

6. I live in a country where someone, likely a woman, will be physically and/or sexually assaulted this weekend, and, if she is brave enough to report it, someone will try to determine, directly or indirectly, what she did to deserve it.

7. I live in a country in which, according to the NAACP, most people don’t have a $1000 to their name.

8. I live in a country in which food free from cancer causing chemicals and genetically questionable ingredients is considered a privilege afforded to those who can afford the inflated prices of such “luxuries”, but politicians make themselves look good by arguing whether a welfare recipient can get a minute steak.

9. I live in a country in which the perfect storm that is being created by the increased costs of education, the increased educational requirements for entry level positions, and stagnant and suppressed wages for the middle management, is being looked at by our government with the wonderment of a 7 month old baby looking over the ledge of the Empire State Building, seemingly enamored with the assured impending plummet that will be her terminal demise.

10. I live in a country in which almost half a century after the government sponsored murder of the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., we are still fighting for social and economic justice that looks depressingly similar to what he witnessed. Mine eyes have yet to see the glory.

No, Max is not being negative or pessimistic. I’m being realistic. THESE are the things that I lay on my face and call out to Yahweh about. ISIS may be a threat – but these demons are on my front porch. I have my priorities in order.

T. Max Christie McMillan is a seminary student, minister, wife, mother, author, and business owner that promotes boisterous indignation of GOD’S people against the evils of racial oppression.

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