May 13, 2022
Dear Interested Readers,
How Hope Can Endure In Difficult Times
If you were a young African American in the early sixties, you were in the midst of a noble struggle meant to free you from the difficulties and disrespect that your parents and your ancestors had known. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. raised your hopes that better times were coming. The first four years of the decade were a continuation of the work that started with the Montgomery Bus Boycott in early December 1955 when Rosa Parks refused to move to the back of the bus. That great struggle culminated in the victories of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and the Voting Rights Act of 1965.
If you were young, white, and excited by progressive ideas during the early and mid-sixties, the personal stakes were not as high for you as for your young black counterparts that had always been segregated from you, but you were still excited by the speeches of Dr. King and President Kennedy. Kennedy’s assassination in Dallas was confusing and suggested that our problems were deeper than you had imagined. LBJ was a positive surprise for both young Black and White Americans. His concept of a Great Society with a “War on Poverty” as well as the civil rights legislation and better healthcare for millions through Medicare and Medicaid seemed like victories that were only distant dreams just a half-decade earlier. But, then came Vietnam.
My own concerns about civil rights, poverty, healthcare, and other social issues dimmed in relationship to the horror of the war. As the decade ended my personal concern that I would soon lose my protection from service by graduating from medical school gave me a taste of the difficult position experienced by so many other young men of the age. Dreams of social equality, healthcare for many more, and the end of racism and poverty that seemed so likely to come true in 1965 were fading memories by the time of the Tet Offensive in January 1968. In April of 1968, Dr. King was assassinated. In June, Robert Kennedy was killed on the night he won the California Democratic presidential primary. In August, there were riots in Chicago at the Democratic Convention. In November, Richard Nixon was elected. 1968 was a tough year for America. We still suffer from the injuries we incurred that year. I don’t think we have ever completely processed what that year told us about ourselves.
Dr. King had sensed the impending changes shortly after the “victories” of the mid-sixties In his last book, Where Do We Go From Here: Chaos or Community? written in 1967. In the book, Dr. King wrote about his concerns as the nation’s attention turned away from civil rights as a problem solved and as riots occurred in Watts, Detroit, and other cities. He was distressed that young black leaders like Stokley Carmichael were abandoning the philosophy of non-violence and were moving toward the more militant philosophy of Black Power as the preferred strategy in the search for equity, self-esteem, and respect for Black Americans. He was worried so as he was trying to make sense of the times and defend the philosophy of non-violence he wrote:
Based on the cruel judgment that Negroes have come far enough, there is a strong mood to bring the civil rights movement to a halt or reduce it to a crawl. Negro demands that yesterday evoked admiration and support, today–to many–have become tiresome, unwarranted and a disturbance to the enjoyment of life. Cries of Black Power and riots are not the causes of white resistance, they are consequences of it.
Dr. King processed his concerns by writing the book during a vacation in Jamaica and emerged hopeful that progress would continue through a union of the poor of all races in a struggle for equity. He extended his analysis to the whole world. The last sentence of his book is:
We still have a choice today: nonviolent coexistence or violent coannihilation. This may well be mankind’s last chance to choose between chaos and community.
Dr. King was writing fifty-five years ago. I would imagine that if he could return to our world he would be disappointed with our lack of progress toward his dream, but I also think he would not be that surprised, and I would expect that he would be very understanding. He knew that gaining equality for all people and eliminating poverty would be difficult to accomplish since success would require political power and those who benefited in this moment from the status quo would require personal transformation if the movement were to ever succeed in the way he dreamed. That was what he was saying when despite his dream he quoted a 19th-century minister, Theodore Parker, saying “The arc of the moral universe is long, but it bends toward justice.” He knew that his dream was the dream of a distant day and that nothing was certain.
I think about Dr. King and ask myself what would he think now as we face the necessity of escalating our funding of what may become a very long war in Ukraine while we are dealing with inflation, fear of the re-escalation of the continuing COVID pandemic, renewed racial tensions, animosity toward immigrants, global warming, and a growing predilection to authoritarian tendencies without the protection of an impartial court. It is hard to be positive about the future when so many people, perhaps all of us, are at risk of losing some fundamental human rights that we thought were guaranteed by “settled law.” I am sure that I will not outlive the resolution of all of these problems,
Each morning, I begin the day with a cup of very black French roast coffee, the internet edition of The New York Times, and the hope that I will be the beneficiary of some positive surprise. As I suggested last week, it is more likely that if there is a “surprise” in the news it will add, not subtract from my concerns. I do enjoy and appreciate the little stories of human effort against great odds and the reports of profound kindness that make it into the news, but those are often efforts and acts of bravery that don’t add up to a major shift in the moral arc toward justice in the near future. It is more likely that I will read something about Putin’s determination to gain unfettered access to the Black Sea, or Mitch McConnell’s affirmation that once Roe v. Wade has been overturned the next objective after his party controls both houses of Congress and the presidency again is to totally abolish abortion in every state. As I read these reports and realize that they are more complicated than the majority of voters want to consider while they are worried about the cost of gasoline, the lack of baby formula, the difficulty finding affordable housing, or the almost impossible job of finding a PCP if you don’t have one, I realize that any conversation about the environment or efforts to prevent global warming, or transformation of healthcare to address the inequity of the social determinants of health will need to wait. As concerns that have any possibility of finding political solutions, they are the metaphorical equivalent of a slice of molded bread that might have been part of a good sandwich a few days ago but is useless now. I fear that the complexity of the moment brings us closer to the warning at the end of Dr.King’s last book than the view of the nirvana-like dream he offered to the country from the steps of the Lincoln Memorial in August of 1963.
The question that was the title of his book, Where Do We Go From Here: Chaos or Community? is again the right question. Former Attorney General Eric Holder was interviewed this week by Terry Gross on her PBS radio program, “Fresh Air.” His answer to the question is to focus on gaining power through fair elections. The vote was the tool that Dr. King was hoping would become the weapon that could win the struggle for respect for Black Americans. Holder has a book out about voting rights and gerrymandering entitled Our Unfinished March: The Violent Past and Imperiled Future of the Vote-A History, a Crisis, a Plan. If you are interested in his story click on the link.
Holder states something that Dr. King knew very well which is the fact that the power to create positive change in a democracy lies with people who vote. I would add that in a country where elections are already controlled in many states by a minority party it is likely that it will take a supermajority of concerned voters to make the changes that will address climate, healthcare, the inequities in the social determinants of health, and inequality in general. Mitch McConnell understands that controlling elections at the local, state, and national level is essential for minority control of our country.
By the time of his assassination, Dr. King incorrectly foresaw a coalition of poor people of all races that could use their voices and their votes to achieve the objectives that were the foundation of his dream and the golden pot of equity that was at the end of that long arc of justice. It turns out that Dr. King did not anticipate the power of the fear of the loss of a White majority or completely understand the inherent biases embedded in the cultural issues that trump economic issues and good sense that leads many poor White voters to vote against their own civil rights and economic best interests. King may have been wrong about the logic of a multiracial coalition of the poor, but he was right about the idea that power flows from the ballot box.
The central strategic question of the moment is what will happen in the elections this fall and subsequently in all future elections in 2024, 2026, 2028, and onward? It is those elections that are the path of that arc that can possibly bend toward justice in your lifetime, if not in my time. I hope that you are paying attention to the challenge of the fall elections and spreading the word. Marches and demonstrations are great if done well, Dr. King proved that, but a more certain change in a democracy comes from the moral use of power that is gained through winning elections. Inattention to that reality and a lack of unity within the coalition of those who care about social justice and basic human rights have allowed a controlling minority to monetize the moment with little regard for the long-term consequences for our democracy and for our planet. If that reality bothers you, there is a lot of work that needs to be done between now and November.
Hummingbirds, Rose-Breasted Grosbeaks, Piliated Woodpeckers, Rainbow Trout, and Other Natural Delights
Maintaining a positive perspective in difficult times is essential. That reality is the motivation behind this section of my weekly letter. So, I search my world each week for the things that add joy to my life no matter what happens elsewhere where my only way of making a difference beyond my community is my vote. It’s a lifelong habit that has allowed me to cope with a lot of change and disappointment while anticipating better times to come.
The weather this week has been fabulous. The sky has been cloudless. The humidity is low. There has been a gentle breeze. The daytime temp has risen into the low eighties! We have done a little yard work. I have cranked up my two antique convertibles, a ‘73 TR6, and a ‘68 Mustang. The swim float is in for the summer. We are getting a new dock next week just in time for the first family visit. Retirement life is good for the moment even though the world seems to be on a slow-motion collision course with multiple potential disasters and the Ukrainians are in a fight for almost everything we hold dear.
Before I begin to feel too guilty for the beauty and the bounty I enjoy, I remind myself to be thankful for what “is” and to enjoy the moment because we never know what challenges tomorrow may bring.
The first ruby-throated hummingbird of the season is featured in today’s header. Now that he [It is a male. The female and juveniles are just green.] has found his way to us others have followed though I have not seen a female yet. I have not seen a rose-breasted grosbeak in about fifteen years and then only one at our old vacation home about fifteen miles north or our current house which we have owned since 2008. At that time I also saw an evening grosbeak which is another gorgeous bird. As you will see below, we now appear to have been adopted by one of these gorgeous birds!
Usually, we have chickadees, two varieties of nuthatches, juncos, titmice, blue jays, yellow finches, phoebes, pewees, hairy and downy woodpeckers, robins, and plenty of crows and doves. Less commonly, we see purple finches. Occasionally, we are excited by the visit of a flock of cedar waxwings. We are now avoiding our side door where a pewee and her significant other are building a nest under the porch roof. We would not want to disturb their process which we can watch through a pane in the door. On the lake, the loons are back and getting ready to nest on a floating island which I helped to repair this week. We see herons [Are they grey or blue?] occasionally. There are Canada geese, mallards, and common mergansers galore. In the sky above there is a resident bald eagle. I am occasionally surprised to see a red-tail hawk when I am out on a walk, but my best sighting on a recent walk was a huge piliated woodpecker, the first one I have seen in the neighborhood, although I occasionally hear them banging on the trees near the road. A rare joy is a visit from a yellow-bellied sapsucker! To my eye, they are basically woodpeckers that like to bang on metal mailboxes.
There is a window over our kitchen sink and just beyond the window is a birdfeeder that bears have never found. Birds fly back and forth to the feeder from nearby shrubs and a Japanese Maple that sits about twenty yards away in the middle of the front lawn. It was through that window that the picture of the hummingbird was taken. Yesterday morning, I looked up from the breakfast dishes that I was washing to see the rose-breasted grosbeak that you see below. I will be running on high from that experience for days to come. I hope he [it is a male] will hang around for a while. I saw him later in the day sitting in the Japenese maple.
Yesterday evening was so glorious that I had to fish. To my delight, I netted my first rainbow of the season. Rainbows are gorgeous. This fellow was only about a foot long. My guess is that he is a newbie to the neighborhood. He is probably one of the 1500 rainbows that the New Hampshire Department of Game and Fish put into our lake in early April. I caught him on a small barbless “gold bead copper john fly.” He was a little sluggish when I put him back in the water, but soon he swam away. Perhaps the experience will make him less impulsive and enable him to grow old by avoiding impulsive behavior in the future.
I hope that you will have your own great weekend. Every day is a gift, and it is a joy to be out and about to see what joyful surprises might await you in our troubled world.
Be well,
Gene
