The Parable of the Sheep and the Goats

Part I: The Judgment of Nations

November 21, 2180

Environmental justice, the hallmark of the last century’s struggle, had been fully realized. The scars of environmental racism, had on the surface, healed. This was the work of the Humphrey Administration beginning in 2037. From day one, the Humphrey administration worked tirelessly to put an end to extractive and polluting industries and enact legislation that established environmental justice as a core tenant of American Democracy.

But over one hundred years of environmental peace have become undone in the last few years. A far-right regime took power in over a hundred years for the first time. Emmanuel, a young civil rights lawyer, was the son of a prominent civil rights lawyer trained in the era of environmental justice that ensured that every law remained in service of equality and ecological balance. Emmanuel grew up holding on to those lessons from his father. Yet the world he had been taught to defend was facing something it had never before seen – a red scare far worse than Donald Trump was here.

September 30, 2181

An elderly man came into the law office where Emmanuel worked in the low country of South Carolina. The man wanted to file a complaint claiming that the government was illegally seizing his land to tap newfound oil reserves discovered on the man’s property. The man owned land off the coast of the Gullah Geechee Islands and the land was in his family dating back to the Reconstruction period in the late 1800s. Emmanuel did not see any success for the man. Those environmental justice laws that would protect the man were now nothing but old dusty relics lost seemingly for good. But the man was adamant that he had a successful claim by mentioning a law from the 2040s that protected communities of color from displacement under the guise of environmental projects. Emmanuel had never heard of the law. He swore all of the laws had been repealed. But the man’s unwavering belief led Emmanuel to indulge.

Determined to find out more, Emmanuel visited the man’s home. In the man’s library was a treasure trove of where dissent still lived and whispers of a buried history thrived. Emmanuel had stumbled upon something remarkable, something that could save the future of the country, yet again. The man, who apparently was a former computer expert, had hidden files encrypted on a secret server that contained stories of the last great environmental battles over a hundred years ago. The files contained more than just a forgotten history. They held the golden key to understanding the present moment and resisting the new regime’s agenda. Emmanuel had to act, but the question was how.

Part II: True Fasting (Isaiah 58:6-10)

March 21, 2082

The new regime claimed to be restoring order to a chaotic nation. Their rise was built on fear. Seeking justice, as if the regime did not provide for it, was seen as a tool of division – an extreme deviation from what the regime, and therefore the country, stood for.

What made the regime truly dangerous was not just their ability to control information but their ability to control hope. The regime’s propaganda machine worked overtime to convince people that resistance was futile. They promoted a narrative that their rule was the natural order of things, and that those who fought against it were fighting against the very future itself. Environmental justice, once a signal for progress, had been twisted into a tool for authoritarian control.

But as a lawyer, Emmanuel knew he was never far from evil. Going against the regime was a dangerous and risky business. The business of civil rights law was the business of civil disobedience. What he was doing, uncovering government secrets could be considered treason. Emmanuel paid this no mind. His father had always told him to love justice more than hating injustice, and to allow that love to take him to the deepest and darkest depths to see that justice prosper.

This was the reality Emmanual faced as he considered what to do about what he was discovering. The archives contained the forgotten laws that protected communities and provided environmental safeguards that could still be used to mount a legal resistance. More than that the archives held stories. Stories of hope in the face of oppression. Emmanuel knew that bringing these stories to light would ignite a new wave of resistance. His only goal was to find justice, no matter how hard it hid itself from view.