For Just Such a Time as This

 This morning I re-read Mordecai's words to Esther, "Yet who knows whether you have come to the kingdom for such a time as this?" This reading following a beautiful story of President Obama meeting with Reverend Billy Graham at Mr. Graham's home in North Carolina, and ending the conversation with praying for each other. I can only imagine that scene, and the words from Mr. Graham to President Obama, "I am proud of you." 

Over the last few days I have been reading transcripts of interviews with Black farmers and poring over summary information about their injustices at the hands of the USDA county committee and others. 

One of the interviews I read was a painful one. It was also one of the shortest. I met the farmer in his home, in his living room, with his caretaker at hand, and him lying in a hospital bed. He wanted to tell his story. I wanted to hear his story, but because of his weakened condition, it needed to be crisp, clean, and brief. He was recovering from surgery and was soon to die of cancer. It was a holy moment. 

He had been set up to fail by the local FSA county director. There was a collusion between the local bank, the FSA county official, and the tractor implement business. They knew that they were foreclosing on him before he and his partner knew it. It was a story of gross misconduct. He lost not only his equipment but his leased land, and most painful of all, his own hard-owned land. 

At the end of the conversation, I closed as I always did, thank you for sharing your story with me. I will promise to tell it in places and spaces where you don't want to go or can't go, because America needs to know about you and your story." Something to that effect. It's in the transcript right over there. 

Then, this week, there are opportunities to tell those stories. The House has passed an enormous COVID-19 relief bill, and in it there are funds for debt forgiveness for Black farmers and other minority farmers. There are funds even allocated to make redress for farmers who have lost their lands, not of their own doing but the doing of the USDA and its racist system. 

So, as part of a group of advocates, I have worked with a particular senator's office on behalf of Black farmers. We have worked as a group on The Justice for Black Farmers Act of 2021. Now, we are gathering stories of Black farmers whose lands have been foreclosed upon by the USDA. We have gathered six incredible stories. The group has selected one of the stories that I wrote for inclusion for the senator to use just in case there is push-back from the Republicans on this bill as they debate over the next few days. 

So, this morning I am feeling it. A farmer who has had his land taken away from him. He has had to bury his beloved wife. He lives with his son and daughter in law with declining mental and physical abilities. One misdeed after another led to the complete demise of his farming operation. We met them when they were younger and strong and vigorous. Now she is deceased, he is in his declining years with bad health, and we have prepared his story for the telling in the Senate. 

For just such a time as this. Let justice ring. Let it be shouted from the sacred halls of the Senate. May in ring through the corridors of that sacred building. May this African American farmer and other Black farmers finally see the justice that they deserve, not to be treated better than the white farmer, but to receive the same fair treatment as all other farmers, all other citizens of this great, yet to realize its potential country. 

Yes, for such a time as this.