WRITE ON FOR JANUARY 12, 2022
sister alies.
The other day when exchanging happy new year’s greetings someone I was asked didn’t think what was wrong with our country was what was going on in Wash. DC? I smiled and said maybe. As we remembered the horrors of Jan 6, 2021…I might have said yes to the inquiry…and asked the same question (though I think there was a different scenario in mind). Most of those who visited the Capitol with their insurrectionist behavior were not from ‘round there… they came from small towns and counties across the nation…just like ours. And many if not most of the people in those towns had nothing to do with this sort of behavior (6 killed, 150 officers wounded, 139 left the service, and over 700 hundred ‘bad-guys’ arrested) based on what is called ‘replacement theory’. This means that some will do anything to preserve white people running the country.
To disagree…to have another political viewpoint of how to deliver to meet the needs of the common good is healthy. Vigorous and timely debate about how to spend money, how to educate children, how to keep citizens healthy and safe…all necessary from the tiniest town council to the Congress. These things and the many others that wait in the wings like the Voters Rights Act preserve the basic rights that policies and programs can be founded upon. If we don’t make voting easy for people, we run the risk of limiting who votes. We want fair and timely elections. We want people to serve in public office who want to help us, not use us for their greed or gain. We vote the constitution …not around one person!
We are tempted to know we are right. To watch only ‘our’ TV stations, or social platforms. That temptation needs to be nixed in favor of watching several so that ‘facts’ might be challenged and ‘alternative facts’ discarded. Misinformation is of no help, except for those promoting it. When we challenge ourselves to find the truth…we end up serving the community.
As we approach the birthday and federal holiday honoring Martin Luther King, Jr (Jan 15 & 17) we are reminded of those ‘good old days’ folks try to locate. No, days past brought their kind of toxicity and violence; their hatred and burning riots. But King, along with others, said NO to violence (despite hangers-on who vouched for it), and NO to war, and NO to those things that hurt and diminish people in our communities. He said YES to serving one another and building the community of the Beloved.
The fact that there are new and engaging crises in our day does not change the basic philosophy that revenge, vengeance, and hatred are not acceptable to anyone’s political persuasion, especially in violence. Every person, he would remind us, black, white, Asian, Hispanic, or Native American is an American, no matter how many of each group exists. The arc of justice will prevail as King taught, but the time frame may be longer if we are not willing to dispel the big lies and work with one another in loving humility for a healthy America.
BLESSINGS.
