On 13th May, my friend Carbon Mike, aka Dexter Taylor, was sentenced by a New York judge to ten years in prison. It should be noted that the judge was inundated with letters of support for Mike, requesting leniency in sentencing. There were over 24 such letters in total, which eloquently described this special man, and which underlined the extent to which he has helped and guided others in his community over many years. They all stressed that he is no threat to anyone. The prosecution demanded three times the State-imposed minimum sentence and that is exactly what the judge finally handed down. This meant that the most persuasive and emotional letters had no effect on the judge whatsoever. When I read them, I felt that she would need a heart of stone not to be moved by what was said. It’s desperately sad that Mike has now become a political football, in a highly politicised American legal system. The case will be appealed, if Mike can raise enough money to do so, but it may take most of his ten years in prison even to reach the federal appeal court, and maybe even longer if it has to go the whole way to the US Supreme Court. Meanwhile, this exceptional human being languishes in a rotten jail.

On the day of his sentencing, Mike/Dexter addressed the Court. It is worth reading what he said, as it will tell you a great deal about the man whom I’m proud to call a friend.

Dexter Taylor’s Sentencing Statement May 13, 2024

Dexter Taylor: Thank you, Your Honor. I appreciate it. 

Family, friends, and allies, Foundationalists but also honored adversaries, today we enter the next phase in the fight to protect our God-given rights from a government that wishes to take them from us and grant us mere privileges in return. To quote another patriot from another place and time:

“This is not the end. This is not even the beginning of the end. This is perhaps, the end of the beginning.” 

And so, as we enter this new phase, there should be no question in the mind of any patriotic American as to why we fight. After all, only slaves lack the right to arm themselves in self-defense, and we are no slaves but free citizens of a great Republic, and we contain multitudes; each of us from a builder, a healer, a teacher, a statesman, a soldier, a judge, an attorney at law and a sergeant at arms, and an image of God. So, we know why we fight.

The question before us is how we must fight. What kind of discipline we must bring with us into battle and what spirit we must show to our friends and adversaries alike, and by way of answering, we refer to our core doctrines.

The Foundationalist’s manifesto calls us to listen closely and to speak clearly. To deny the self and at the same time, to defend the individual. To respect tradition and also to cultivate the future. In short, as Foundationalists, we are called to embrace disciplines that seem to contradict each other but, nonetheless, to embrace them with all of our strength. 

So, it is in our current fight because this system, as dysfunctional as it often is, as unjust as it often is, is, nonetheless, our system. It is a feature, not a bug, of our American civilization. Like any other structure built from man’s crocked timber, it is not perfect.

Judges and attorneys and trial courts and juries in the light of day are not perfect. Judges and attorneys and trial courts and juries in the light of day are merely what we have, instead of the blood feud and the vendetta and the dagger in the dead of night. 

Knowing this, we give challenge, even as we give thanks. Knowing this, we prepare ourselves for battle in a spirit of profound dissatisfaction and profound gratitude, in equal measure. That is the apparent contradiction we face, as we continue this struggle for the civil rights of our fellow New Yorkers and our fellow Americans. 

On the one hand, to hate this system, our system, enough to fight it. But on the other hand, to love it enough, to love it enough to think it’s worth fighting for. Nothing else will do for us, but this profoundly Christian habit of defeating a contradiction by fully embracing both sides of it. So, when our adversaries look for us, let them find — to quote my Christian friend,

“A bee shiniest at a wasp’s hostility.”

Let us show them a soldier’s intensity and a diplomat’s calm. Let our adversaries find us stern in battle, patient in defeat, and gracious in our ultimate victory, which is certain. In short, when our adversaries look for us, let them find reasonable men and irrational patriots.

When I was a boy, my grandfather told me that fire is a great servant but a terrible master, and so it is with Government. And to the extent that our own Government attempts to be our master, we must oppose it. We must fight to the utmost limits of our strength, but in that fight, our spirit must be one of restoration, not destruction. We must confront the enemy as the firefighter confronts his enemy, and for the same reasons: that the structure itself may yet be saved.

God bless and keep you all, and may God bless the United States of America. Thank you, Your Honor.

-End Quote

Please support Dexter Taylor in his fight for justice here: Dexter Taylor’s GiveSendGo Legal Fund

I wonder whether any of you found, as you read those words, that the tone, power and balance of the message reminded you of another famous black American, who also was sacrificed for truth, honesty and justice, many decades ago?

Please pray for Mike, and for his family. We badly need courageous men like him in our broken world.

Heavenly Father, protect, guide and succour Mike in his battles against injustice and devastating politicisation of legal systems. Grant him the courage, the strength and the resilience to stand firm against the long years in prison that will almost certainly be his lot. And give his family and friends the knowledge that they are not alone. Amen