A Self-Reflective Reflection

        

        While I try to keep my posts factual and center the argument around introductions of policy, today I want to rant about morality. This inspiration came from two books I had finished this week,
His Truth is Marching On: John Lewis and the Power of Hope by Jon Meacham, and Grace: President Obama and Ten Days in the Battle for America by Cody Keenan. While both are incredible stories in history of actions taken by an impassioned civil rights leader and inspired speech writer respectively, these books highlighted the continued moral struggle of America.  Their stories, battles, and beliefs are why I love this country.  Both stories made the fights of the past a framing device for the struggles of the present.  That we are fighting now was not an indictment of our society, but an ongoing symbol of the transforming America.  The struggle itself is the true representation: we are not perfect, but in a constant battle to make a more perfect union.

        We in the later generations like to think about the past as a battle with an end point, suddenly a mighty event shakes the foundations and everything changes. But that is never the case.  Even in war, where other humans are killed for their beliefs, the story continues with generations adjusting to the victors.  After WWI came WWII, a short 21 years later. In the American Civil War, the North fought against the South which strove to maintain their status as slaveowners, followed by the Reconstruction Era. After Reconstruction ended with the Compromise of 1877 the Jim Crow Era began, followed by the terrors in the South, then the Civil Rights Movement of the 1950s and 60s.  Even as Martin Luther King Jr. stepped down from the podium in August of 1963, the next day Gallup posted a poll, showing King had a 41% positive rating amongst Americans.  Yet now, we regard the “I Have a Dream” speech as one of the most pivotal in American history.

        Unfortunately, many of these fights continue today.  With the new conservative super-majority on the Supreme Court, the Republican acceptance of fringe ideology, and outright Nazism on the rise, I am reminded of those fights of the past and how hard they were fought on both sides…  The southern states were prepared to rip the country apart for slavery.  Sheriff Bull Connor was elated to sic attack dogs on peaceful black protesters fighting for equality.  Evangelical Christians cheered as courts and states denied gay couples the right to get married, couples they would never meet, in states they would never travel to, and tears they would never see.  These fights have always been a resistance to inevitable change.  Yet what baffles me the most has always been the lack of self-examination.

        I have always been fairly liberal in my political beliefs.  My family had always been made up of public servants and opinionated fighters.  At my older brother’s wedding last year, my uncle excitedly brought over a stack of books he had read, dying to speak on each of the issues highlighted within.  But I always try to question my beliefs at every turn, not because of doubt, but because times change, and I want to make sure I still believe what I preach.  Part of that fundamental analysis is encapsulated in a well-known saying from Euripides, circa 406 B.C.: “Every man is like the company he is wont to keep.”  It’s an old saying and an older belief, that those who agree with you are reflections on that which you preach.  And I always question those in power now. I know that my beliefs are not attracting Nazis.  I know my political ideas are embraced by those who are least fortunate in our society, but are snubbed by the wealthiest.  Yet there are those in power who embrace those ideas that are lauded by the KKK and neo-Nazis.  How can those in power not see who they are attracting?

        The answer in today’s republican party is always simple: it’s about power. Yes, Nazis like what we say, yes, we will say “we don’t like them”, but we will still take their votes.  It’s about judges, it’s about the House, the Senate, the Presidency. It's power, stupid. But the road is long, it always has been. The arch of time bends towards justice, it doesn’t swerve. The moral path is one of equality, understanding, and compassion. It is one that doesn’t exclude but includes those who are disenfranchised.  Our shared history is one of struggle, and it always should be, for the path to protection will always extend before us, whether we achieve our goals or not.  That we are struggling is not an aberration, but our very identity as Americans. We are a beautiful and diverse group who will disagree, but we cannot give up on our brothers and sisters.

        I have confidence in our country because our struggles and victories are the same. There are those who live in fear and wish to halt change, but there will always be those who will understand change is constant and meet it with kindness. We cannot give up the good fight.

        In March 1965, President Johnson met with George Wallace, the infamous Alabama Governor who spat out “segregation now, segregation tomorrow, segregation forever.”  As he leaned back in his chair behind the resolute desk, LBJ asked Wallace “…George, what do you want left behind?  Do you want a great big marble monument that says ‘George Wallace: He Built’?  Or do you want a little piece of scrawny pine lying there along that harsh caliche soil that says ‘George Wallace: He Hated’?”  In 1965, during a viciously racist resistance led by George Wallace, with clenched fists, attack dogs, firehoses, and screams, later said “Hell, if I’d stayed in there much longer, he’d have had me coming out for civil rights.”

#FitzFile