(Originally published at "A Year of Service" 11/9/16)
This morning I woke up feeling dizzy, disoriented. Maybe I've been feeling dizzy for a while and I'm just now noticing. During the post-nomination campaign, I cycled back and forth from feeling doomed by a Trump win to feeling delivered by a Clinton win. On election morning my chest was as tight as a drum and I breathed shallowly. Then I found the live-stream from Rochester, NY showing thousands of pilgrims visiting Susan B. Anthony's grave and leaving their "I Voted" stickers on her tombstone. The reverence and pride in their voices was the change I needed from the poisonous tone of the election. I left the live-stream open on my screen as I worked and by noon I was thinking "Now THIS is America. THIS is who we are, not all of that negative stuff." At lunch break I took some time to meditate on history's curve towards justice. The battles are always difficult, but good seems to trump discrimination and ignorance over and over. By the end of the day, I was feeling confident about the outcome.
Then the election happened and this morning I was dizzy. Clearly, we have become a nation of hate. We vote for people we don't respect in order to spite other people we don't even know. Discrimination is our most treasured privilege. Maybe all the progress we have made will be lost. Perhaps it has all been for nothing. We are deplorable, stupid, small and we deserve nothing.
But, of course, the truth is that America is both of these, at the same time. Our baser natures manifest as we injure, discriminate and kill our neighbors. Too many of us actively seek to harm others. Even greater numbers of Americans refuse to acknowledge the damage we do. Sometimes we protect our ignorance above all else.
At the same time, those ideals that lift us and drive us to be better are still here. But they have no permanent existence in the material world. Fairness, justice, equality, truth -- they aren't like rocks or trees or houses. You can't touch them and they don't have an address. Our government buildings, neutral stacks of marble, can't contain them. They cannot be set in stone, inviolate for all time. They only exist inside our human hearts. Occasionally, they bubble up into the real world in the shape of a law that helps someone. And then later, that law might be taken away. But the core of what is good about America only exists inside of us. People of good will, we are the keepers of America and we are the only ones who can pass this goodness on to the next generation.
Laws can be erased. Rights can be interrupted. We can be hurt. That is one truth.
The other truth is, this year, millions of us made our ideals visible as we campaigned, drove voters to the polls, voted with our hearts and heads, and visited the Anthony grave. This cannot be taken away by an election. Our flame burns even while we despair. It cannot be quenched.
In a few days, once we've rested, let that flame come back up. Tend it. Feed it a little direct action. The world needs us now more than ever before.
*The title of this essay is a sentence I heard during a meeting at Compton Heights Christian Church tonight. Sometimes I think of my own service in terms of success/ failure. It's good to be reminded that doing the right thing doesn't necessarily ensure success and failure doesn't always indicate an unworthy effort.
Then the election happened and this morning I was dizzy. Clearly, we have become a nation of hate. We vote for people we don't respect in order to spite other people we don't even know. Discrimination is our most treasured privilege. Maybe all the progress we have made will be lost. Perhaps it has all been for nothing. We are deplorable, stupid, small and we deserve nothing.
But, of course, the truth is that America is both of these, at the same time. Our baser natures manifest as we injure, discriminate and kill our neighbors. Too many of us actively seek to harm others. Even greater numbers of Americans refuse to acknowledge the damage we do. Sometimes we protect our ignorance above all else.
At the same time, those ideals that lift us and drive us to be better are still here. But they have no permanent existence in the material world. Fairness, justice, equality, truth -- they aren't like rocks or trees or houses. You can't touch them and they don't have an address. Our government buildings, neutral stacks of marble, can't contain them. They cannot be set in stone, inviolate for all time. They only exist inside our human hearts. Occasionally, they bubble up into the real world in the shape of a law that helps someone. And then later, that law might be taken away. But the core of what is good about America only exists inside of us. People of good will, we are the keepers of America and we are the only ones who can pass this goodness on to the next generation.
Laws can be erased. Rights can be interrupted. We can be hurt. That is one truth.The other truth is, this year, millions of us made our ideals visible as we campaigned, drove voters to the polls, voted with our hearts and heads, and visited the Anthony grave. This cannot be taken away by an election. Our flame burns even while we despair. It cannot be quenched.
In a few days, once we've rested, let that flame come back up. Tend it. Feed it a little direct action. The world needs us now more than ever before.
*The title of this essay is a sentence I heard during a meeting at Compton Heights Christian Church tonight. Sometimes I think of my own service in terms of success/ failure. It's good to be reminded that doing the right thing doesn't necessarily ensure success and failure doesn't always indicate an unworthy effort.
