Reading Heather Cox Richardson on America’s ignoble new philosophy on international “diplomacy” — not! Read her every day, but please read this today to understand my comments below.
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Growing up during the Cold War, watching Congress and the Courts do their jobs, even when it meant accepting we could not tolerate the crimes of President Nixon, weeping when I saw the Berlin Wall fall, weeping again when I saw the first Black President, Barack Obama, take his sacred oath of office, knowing America to be at least in her best moments, a defender of others against tyranny and international criminals, a believer in justice for ALL and truth and freedom for ALL — I never in a million years would have believed what has happened and is happening in my country today, nor that any American, let alone so-called “Christian-Nationalist” American, would tolerate this for a minute after realizing what it is. We are literally letting an international law-breaking half-wit lead us. Seriously? Why? Because the elite oligarchy of business and political uber-greedy are happy with the complete lack of truth and justice and law and order and the chaos based on stupidity and false “doctrine”, and they are gaining more money — more money than any one would ever use in a million years. America has been inching toward this, yes, but this is an avalanche. Have we been perfect — even always good? No, of course not. But this? No. We have never been this. To live in a nation that sends its mockery of an army against its own civilians but will not send its well-funded and exceptional military resources to aid another democracy — we are no longer being run by Americans in our federal government; we are being run by the shysters, the Mob, and the Anti-Christs of this world. We are sending our greedy incompetents or our literally pardoned felons of international crimes to represent us in the world. Shame and sorrow. We can no longer claim to be that “shining city on a hill” when our government has decided to throw it all on the garbage heap to enhance their own warped greed and power-hungry narcissism. May Ukraine and Europe find the strength and will to fight evil. May small Americans use their voices and actions to stand up for what the dream of America is meant to be at its best. May we who believe Jesus had something to say about this be the compassionate political activist that He was. And shame on America. Perhaps through shame, we may still find our way forward to be that “one Nation under God” and that “shining city on a hill”. Meanwhile — My heart weeps for us all.
So, today my country makes history, yet again. This time, the history making event, is one of huge proportions, of criminality, of power abused, and the abuse of power revealed and charged.
Today, the purpose of the American judicial system is revealed for what it was, at its best, meant to achieve. No one is privileged under the rule of law, which is meant to be the same for every citizen of a democratic nation. It has rarely, rarely, rarely been in this country, or any country, but today it is. Today, my nation also takes seriously, and lets every citizen know, that espionage, is still a “thing”, and it is dangerous and it is punishable by the highest courts in the nation. There have been many who escape our laws, because they have enough money to do so. Today, at least for a while, we can believe that whether you are white or black, rich or poor, educated or uneducated, born here or born elsewhere and melded into the American quilt of
“Give me your tired, your poor, Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free, The wretched refuse of your teeming shore”; no matter what your last name is or how many buildings you may have it emblazoned on or spray painted on; that we, the American people, will assume you are innocent, but if you are proved guilty, you will be brought to justice, because we, the American people, deserve justice for all.
The last time I felt the kind of “we are making history” feeling, I have today, was when I got my first Covid shot, in a big tented parking lot at Cal Poly University, where nurses from all over the United States had been flown to various other locations, put up in hotels, away from their families, but dedicated to the cause of helping us fight the first world pandemic since the early 20th Century. Masked, and still afraid after months of fear, I felt so very brave. I felt that I was connected to the many Americans, not only getting a vaccine shot today to keep themselves and others safe and alive, but to the many Americans who had lived through rations during World Wars, who had fought for a cause other than oil or land, but for human rights and to defeat those nations who would abuse their power by making racism or greed an excuse for the horrors of war. I felt that as the smallest of all citizens in this nation, I was, by doing my part, a part of the Whole. I was making history.
And the time before that, when I, with very little hope that it could happen, experienced the pure elation of seeing history in the making, a night when I spontaneously wept with the joy of disbelief, was the night I gathered with my family, around our television set, and watched history being made with the announcement that my nation now had a Black President. I am not the one who has the right to enumerate my country’s sad history of racially motivated wrongs, (beginning with the genocide of First Nation peoples), but in this case, more specifically the enslavement and horrors inflicted upon African, i.e. Black slaves, and I can not speak to the heart-wrenching stories I read daily of the American racism that leads to the abuse of power, biased judicial rulings and imprisonments, and insane worship of an old document’s amendment to make excuses for the greed that rules our gun laws in this nation, of which Black citizens are most at risk for being the victims of. But I can speak to the moment, on November 4, 2008, when my four children, my husband and I, heard the most amazing thing, I never thought I would hear: The next President of The United States is Barack Obama. And I, as the most insignificant little person, in what was meant to be, “One Nation, under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all”; I had one little vote to cast, and with that vote, I was part of an historical moment, that had never happened before.
Sometimes, the moment of making history in the world, is clouded and unseen. We may never have the privilege of knowing that what is happening today in our country, will have ramifications for good or evil, for better or worse. History is mostly hindsight, and it will be for others to write, as Charles Dickens once famously wrote, “It was the best of times, it was the worst of times, it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness, it was the epoch of belief, it was the epoch of incredulity, it was the season of light, it was the season of darkness, it was the spring of hope, it was the winter of despair.”
There are many days, to quote another profound writer, I fear I am but one little ant, “living a quiet life of desperation”, and that we Americans will never turn the corner of helping our nation return to its once lofty goals, or that, God help us (literally) we humans will never manage to save our gasping for air, poor Mother Earth, or that people of good conscience will never humble themselves to understand what their God desires for them and all, “The LORD loves righteousness and justice; the earth is full of his unfailing love” (Psalm 33:5). But today, there is, in the midst of so much darkness, light; in the midst of so much injustice, equality; in the midst of so much fear, hope. And I feel hope for my nation, and for all of us who foolishly believe that we need something we do not have when what we have is all we need — because we have each other, and we have the freedom, and the right, and the oh, so very important necessity to say:
“When in the course of human events it becomes necessary…. We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.–That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, –That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness. Prudence, indeed, will dictate that Governments long established should not be changed for light and transient causes; and accordingly all experience hath shewn, that mankind are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable, than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed. But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same Object evinces a design to reduce them under absolute Despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such Government, and to provide new Guards for their future security…..He has refused his Assent to Laws, the most wholesome and necessary for the public good……And for the support of this Declaration, with a firm reliance on the protection of divine Providence, we mutually pledge to each other our Lives, our Fortunes and our sacred Honor.” (from The Declaration of Independence, 1776)
History being made doesn’t always feel good. It certainly has never been, nor should it be, easy. But then, most good things, most right things, most important things, and all sacred things and sacred trusts, have never come easy, nor should they. For we humans are meant to understand that not only are we privileged with godlike rights on this Earth, but we are tasked with God-like responsibilities. We are created to be our best when we are creative, not destructive; when we are truthful, not deceptive; when we are united, not divided; when we are just, not unjust; and when we give up our prejudices, our covetousness, our fears, and our hatred, for the freedom of treating others, as we would require and wish all to be treated.
Today, is that paradigm of an historical moment that is both sad and happy, both shocking and reassuring, both frightening and hopeful. Today, I am a part of history. You are a part of history. And of course, once we realize we are alive to see history being made, all there is really left for us to do is ask ourselves, “What will we who are privileged to be alive today, leave for our children?” For history is never made to make a name for those alive in it, for all names are eventually forgotten in the tides of time and men. History-making is to make a future for the children, and the grandchildren, and the beautiful, beautiful planet on which we are privileged to come from and return to. For “from dust we are made, and to dust we will return.” But today, a little speck of history’s dust has landed upon my shoulders, and I shall hold it carefully, as a sacred trust of hope, that sometimes, the very present moment can assure us, that “it is well and all will be well.”
He bought up every thing in the whole, whole wide world.
He bought all the pleasures, the birds and the bees.
And he plotted and planned how to buy even more,
as he gassed the whole planet and chopped down all the trees.
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He bought all the finish lines, so he won all the races.
He bought so many mansions, he couldn’t remember all the places.
He bought a new spouse and he bought a new face,
and when he owned the whole planet, he bought outer space.
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This man for an instant in time was quite famous.
This rich, famous man owned the world — the whole cosmos!
Who is he, you ask? Who is this great mystery?
No one knows any more, he is buried in history.
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The richest and ruling-est here on this earth,
think that profit and power reveal one’s true worth.
But even by owning every thing one can buy,
no one can buy out of the fact we all die.
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The poor man bought every thing, below and above,
But in the end, what he never owned — was what lasts –
only Love.
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“For what is the lasting profit, if we gain the whole world, but in the process lose our souls.” (Jesus of Nazareth, dirt poor but definitely remembered by history)
NOTE: The metaphor of being a worm is not for everyone. There are as indicated in the above musing, far too many people who are made to feel like they are nothing but “worker-worms”, so to speak. But the metaphor of being a worm was helpful for me. It comes perhaps originally from an old hymn that I used to sing in the churches of the Midwest where I grew up and began to grow into what I hope is an ever evolving faith and worldview. I want to become more. Well, that is it, I guess, just “more”.
The following words to the hymn by Isaac Watts called out to me today from the hallows of history. Today –What and Who calls out to you, like a Parent to Her child, asking:
“Will you represent?”
Alas and Did My Savior Bleed, by Isaac Watts (c. 1707)
Alas, and did my Savior bleed And did my Sovereign die? Would He devote that sacred head For such a worm as I?
Was it for sins that I had done He groaned upon the tree? Amazing pity, grace unknown And love beyond degree.
My God, why would You shed Your blood So pure and undefiled To make a sinful one like me Your chosen, precious child?
Well might the sun in darkness hide And shut His glories in When Christ, the mighty Maker, died For man, the creature’s, sin.
Thus might I hide my blushing face While His dear cross appears Dissolve my heart in thankfulness And melt my eyes to tears.
My God, why would You shed Your blood So pure and undefiled To make a sinful one like me Your chosen, precious child?
(Time Magazine: 9/11 The Photographs That Moved Them Most)
The 9/11 of The Year 2020
By Jane Tawel
August 15, 2020
As of August, at least 168,000 American citizens have died from Covid-19. This does not include any people that we do not know of, who may have died from the virus or from complications from the virus, nor does it include the many thousands that will continue to die while “Nero fiddles and Rome burns”. Our Congress can’t work together so it goes on holiday and our President continues to lie to the people and golf, and we the citizens are left asking those in charge, “Do you really not understand the seriousness of this current domestic terrorism called Covid-19? Or do you just not care?”
This Pandemic on American soil, is our generation’s Pearl Harbor, our D-Day, our Boston Tea Party, our 9/11.
In one of the most horrific events in modern American history, a day forever known as 9/11, 2,977 people died. Our national response to 9/11 was swift, immediate, sweeping, and although in many ways, it has been shown to be wrong-headed, and short-sighted, at the time it was something that every single patriotic citizen of America saw as something our government did for the protection and well-being of our citizenry. The 20/20 of our hindsight about the consequences of America’s reactions to 9/11 should not blind us to the brave and absolutely necessary reaction of our leaders at the time this unprecedented horror happened.
The federal government led by people who had never experienced anything like 9/11 before sprung into action and worked together, President and Congress making the best of their responses to an unprecedented and tragic situation, in order to devise national and necessary changes for increased safety measures, protections from danger for its citizens, and the rebuilding of our trust in our government and in each other. Slightly less than two short decades ago, Americans, having seen the worst that could be thrown at us, rose to the challenge of trying to be the best that we could be – the best we have ever been – by working together, rebuilding literally and figuratively from the ground up. Governments both federal and state-wide enacted historical sweeping measures in security and protection on a national scale. The attack on American soil was nothing compared to the attack on the American psyche and in fact to this day we are fighting two unending wars because we took so seriously this unimaginable thing that happened on September 11, 2001.
Today another unimaginable thing is happening on American soil. Today we are also living in unprecedented times. Today we have the choice humans so often have: Shall we learn from history, and do our best, or shall we ignore history, and make mistakes?
Today, we look back, at the mistakes the government made in its response to 9/11, and we should do this, because by looking at yesterday’s mistakes, we can do better today. But we must also continue to cherish and hold-fast to what our nation did right, and especially to what individuals did heroically and sometimes, miraculously. We should read and reread, tell and re-tell, the true stories about the heroes of 9/11 who from Day One waded into danger to save strangers, and those named and unnamed heroes who continued year after year to work to make this country safer for everyone, and better for every citizen. The moral of the Story of 9/11 was at heart – our hearts! – and the amazing character of the average American who rose to that challenge of the moment.
The federal response (and the responses to 9/11 of New York City, New York, Pennsylvania and the District of Columbia) are overshadowed, as they should be, by the rising up of the often forgotten, often unnamed, unsung, and sometimes even unknown heroes of the average American who waded bravely and literally into the danger, and then the ashes and destruction, and figuratively into the gaping wounds of need that many citizens experienced after 9/11. No one asked, “Why should I?”. Everyone asked, “What can I do?”
What we as a nation did in the shock-waves reverberating from the falling of the Twin Towers and the attack on our nation – what we did, not just in one or two places, but across the plains, from ocean to ocean, and from individual American to individual American, was not perfect, but it was perfectly what we said we wanted to be when we became a nation – “one nation, indivisible with liberty and justice for all”. And leading the way, not trailing behind or excusing itself for not knowing what to do, or hoping that everything was going to be okay in time, was our federal government. This was their responsibility and therefore, their duty to respond to an act of terrorism.
I have seen great things in this United States of America and I have read of many more amazing, miraculous, phenomenal things that both government and individuals have done in the history of this “Sweet Land of Liberty”. And, yet, people are still telling me, in August 2020, that we, this country, this “shining city on a hill”, can not hold our current federal government accountable for a response to a pandemic that is killing Americans on our soil? People are still telling me that our President and our Senate are doing everything they can? What about everything they SHOULD?
People are telling me we can not hold our neighbor accountable? People are still telling me that every citizen is free to do whatever they want no matter what the consequences to other citizens; that we can not be expected to give up our politics in order to all work together? People are telling the essential and emergency workers that what they are doing is pointless because many citizens are still unwilling to give up a little here, and share a little there, and build back our safety and health from the ground up? And I have to ask, What country is this? Surely it isn’t the same country that responded to 9/11?
People are telling me it’s only a “small percentage” of people dying, or getting sick, and I have to ask, “Is that how you responded to the 2, 977 people who died in 9/11? Did you comfort yourself with the fact that only a very small percentage of Americans had died?
People are telling me we can’t make voting by mail safer in same way we made flying safer? Or that we can’t all wear masks in public for a while in the same way we all learned to take off our shoes at the airport? That we can’t give up a trip or two, or a bar party or two, or a church service or two in the same way people gave up their families and homes to fight the war on terror? People are telling me we can’t possibly require some people to make a little less money out of the millions and billions they make so that other people can have a place to live, and some electricity, and their children can have enough food today because the idea of unfettered capitalism is more important than human life? People are telling me their weapons of terror are more important as a freedom than the freedom to walk safe streets? People are telling me that America is no longer the nation of “Yes, we can” but a nation of “No, we won’t”?
And I just can not, for the life of me, understand. Because I woke up the morning of 9/11 not knowing, not understanding as I watched the same horror that every American citizen watched that day, a horror we could never have imagined, a thing incomprehensible even as we saw it happen before our very eyes. And none of us knew what to do. And then, as a nation, we did it.
I don’t understand so many leaders and people today in America; I can not get my head around their hard hearts and illogical, uncaring, foolish behaviors. Because I once saw this nation simply pull up its sleeves, and say, “We aren’t sure how, and we aren’t sure we will do it all right, (we most certainly won’t) but we are sure we will try our best. Because if we aren’t in this together to succeed “one for all and all for one”, to rise from these ashes like a phoenix; then we will certainly be in it together to fail and fall.” Divided we will fall, and united we will stand. That is who we were after 9/11, and as much as we mourn those who suffered and continue to suffer because of some of our bad decisions made in the wake of 9/11, and as much as those in charge then regret now some of the things we did because of 9/11, we did not shirk our duty to all that is ethical and true and right about our responsibilities to our ideals and to each other. I love the America that we were on 9/12/2001. And I find myself wondering, what happened to that America?
People keep telling me that Americans don’t have to do anything anyone tells us to do because that is our right. And I just keep thinking – have we become our own worst terrorists? Will the 9/11 of the Corona Virus be the thing that finally defeats the great American Dream?
All I can say is, Oh dear God, I hope not.
Today in 2020, we are guardians of a great legacy, the legacy of our forefathers and foremothers, the legacy of our brave warriors who fought not just for our own freedoms but for the freedoms of countless nations in countless wars, on countless shores. We are guardians of the legacy of those on our own soil who insisted that all have civil liberties, and of the legacy of September 11, 2001. Will that legacy die at the hands of our own unwillingness to fight this new enemy of the American people? Will a virus be the one seemingly small thing that defeats this great, big nation?
No, it will not be a virus that defeats America. It will be our own selfishness, pride, greed, and ignorance. It will not be our inability to change, it will be our unwillingness to change.
If the Corona Virus is the thing we as a people can not rise up to defeat, then even if only a “small percentage” die from it, it will be the thing that kills the very soul of our nation.
Aren’t we bigger than that, Americans? Aren’t we braver, and truer, and kinder than that? Aren’t we more alike than we are different, because we are Americans, after all? Aren’t we able to rise above this new challenge? Together? United? Can’t we, together, envision the legacy we want to leave in the wake of this new terror and trial?
I want to believe we can. If you’re with me: “Let’s roll!”
Jane Tawel 