America has often chosen wrong and had to pay for it later.
Over 71 million people chose to return Donald Trump to the White House.
Whether they were right to do so will be determined by whether the anger and vitriol he spewed towards his fellow Americans defines how he will treat them as president. We have to wonder how much damage he must inflict before even his own supporters feel the hurt so bad they start to question, “what did we do?”
Sixty years after America’s first attempt at Reconstruction, in the 1920s, a majority of Americans embraced white supremacy. If we find ourselves in a similar place 60 years after the expansions of equal protection and voting rights in the 1960s and 70s, we cannot be surprised. But neither can we think that this is all America is or can be. We have within us the potential for both evil and good.
We must be honest about our political system. In debates on cable news and in the halls of Congress, the needs of poor and low-wage working people are barely mentioned. The problem of low wages and death by poverty were not adequately addressed by either major political party in this election season.
The victories that we did win this week – like higher minimum wages and paid sick leave in Missouri, Nebraska, and Alaska– came because of the tireless efforts of poor and low-wage people and their allies.
These efforts cannot cease, no matter what. Because 800 people a day still die from poverty and low wages, our efforts must continue.
When Plessy v Ferguson was handed down – which gave us the cursed phrase “separate but equal” – our foreparents engaged in a 58-year-struggle to tear it down and they had far less resources to do it with than we do today.
If there ever was a moment to come together, it is now. Indeed, maintaining unity and avoiding blame-game and fracturing that is already taking place must be the order of the day.
It’s important that each of you working for justice for the least of these hold your head high and your heart steady. You are instruments of truth, and you stand among the greatest instruments God has, whether the majority listens or not. You and I must do the same thing our forerunners did the morning they woke up in 1877 or in 1896 or in 1914 or in August 1955 or September 1963 or November of 1963. They were honest about their pain, frustration, tears, and their struggle. But because they knew their cause was right, they shook themselves off and declared: nevertheless I will trust and keep working.
This is a Psalm 73 moment.
Surely God is good to Israel,
to those who are pure in heart.
But as for me, my feet had almost slipped;
I had nearly lost my foothold.
For I envied the arrogant
when I saw the prosperity of the wicked.
They have no struggles;
their bodies are healthy and strong.
They are free from common human burdens;
they are not plagued by human ills.
Therefore pride is their necklace;
they clothe themselves with violence.
From their callous hearts comes iniquity;
their evil imaginations have no limits.
They scoff, and speak with malice;
with arrogance they threaten oppression.
Their mouths lay claim to heaven,
and their tongues take possession of the earth.
Therefore their people turn to them
and drink up waters in abundance.
They say, “How would God know?
Does the Most High know anything?”
This is what the wicked are like—
always free of care, they go on amassing wealth.
Surely in vain I have kept my heart pure
and have washed my hands in innocence.
All day long I have been afflicted,
and every morning brings new punishments.
If I had spoken out like that,
I would have betrayed your children.
When I tried to understand all this,
it troubled me deeply
till I entered the sanctuary of God;
then I understood their final destiny.
Surely you place them on slippery ground;
you cast them down to ruin.
How suddenly are they destroyed,
completely swept away by terrors!
They are like a dream when one awakes;
when you arise, Lord,
you will despise them as fantasies.
When my heart was grieved
and my spirit embittered,
I was senseless and ignorant;
I was a brute beast before you.
Yet I am always with you;
you hold me by my right hand.
You guide me with your counsel,
and afterward you will take me into glory.
Whom have I in heaven but you?
And earth has nothing I desire besides you.
My flesh and my heart may fail,
but God is the strength of my heart
and my portion forever.
Those who are far from you will perish;
you destroy all who are unfaithful to you.
But as for me, it is good to be near God.
I have made the Sovereign Lord my refuge;
I will tell of all your deeds.
The Psalm puts words to our pain. But it also challenges us to sing and act again, as Venice Williams exhorts us to in this poem:
You are awakening to the
same country you fell asleep to.
The very same country.
Pull yourself together.
And,
when you see me,
do not ask me
“What do we do now?
How do we get through the next four years?”
Some of my Ancestors dealt with
at least 400 years of this
under worse conditions.
Continue to do the good work.
Continue to build bridges not walls.
Continue to lead with compassion.
Continue the demanding work
of liberation for all.
Continue to dismantle broken systems,
large and small.
Continue to set the best example
for the children.
Continue to be a vessel of nourishing joy.
Continue right where you are.
Right where you live into your days.
Do so in the name of
The Creator who expects
nothing less from each of us.
And if you are not “continuing”
ALL of the above,
in community, partnership, collaboration?
What is it you have been doing?
What is it you are waiting for?