January 13, 2023
Dear Interested Readers,
Contemplating the Message of Dr. King
The years have gone by so fast. 1968 was both yesterday and a lifetime ago. Over the last few years as I have gone deeper and deeper into my understanding of the social determinants of health I have become much more appreciative of Dr. King’s wisdom. I believe that by the time he wrote his last book, Where Do We Go From Here?: Chaos or Community, he knew what most of us have not learned in the almost 55 years since his death. Dr. King knew that the solution for all the injustices of centuries of racist policy and attitudes is to join the effort to obtain equity for Black Americans to the political efforts to end poverty. That is why he planned “The Poor People’s March on Washington.”
It is sad to contemplate all of the human suffering and waste of collective opportunity and wealth that we have endured by not heading Dr. King’s call for mercy for the poor and the excluded. Dr. King’s message and his example have led to much progress, but it pains me to contemplate how much more we might have gained and how much suffering could have been avoided if we could have trusted and followed his message. It is not too late to be guided to a better world by acting on his vision and insight.
Dr. King said that he had been to the mountaintop. I am sure that what he saw from that long view into the future was a world of social and economic equity where everyone was respected and did not want for their basic needs. As we remember him and contemplate the meaning of his life we miss his message if we do not realize that he was calling us all to act together to bring that equitable future into reality without further delay. He called us to action when he said:
“There is nothing new about poverty. What is new, however, is that we have the resources to get rid of it.”
Dr. King, Nobel Peace Prize address, 1964
Things Are Not Working Well
Does it seem to you that our world is out of control? Just as soon as the shock of one unexpected event begins to fade, we are surprised yet again by something unexpected. How many times have you heard something, usually an unusual weather event, described as a once-in-a-hundred-year event? This last week we endured four days and fifteen roll call votes before Kevin McCarthy was finally elected with who knows what residual power. It was more than a once-in-a-hundred-year event since the record set was in 1856 for the longest election process for the speaker of the house. In 1856 it took one hundred thirty-three roll calls occurring over two months to name Nathaniel Prentice Banks of the Free Soil Party from Massachusetts as the speaker.
Tensions and divisions in 1856 were over slavery. The beef now came from the far right “Freedom Caucus” which evolved in 2015 from the “Tea Party.” The Freedom Caucus contains some far-right libertarian members who don’t see much use for government at all. The Freedom Caucus pushed John Boehner out of his speakership, and the difficulties they created were a major factor that led Paul Ryan not to run for reelection in 2018 which effectively ended his tenure as speaker.
I endured fourteen of the fifteen roll calls of this second-longest speaker selection process. As the spectacle progressed, I wondered what we might expect going forward from a party that seemed to be so intent on doing nothing that it could not elect someone to be its leader until the wannabe leader had given away all of the tools of leadership. We could see the voting, but we could only hear rumors from the commentators about the behind-the-scenes negotiations where one by one all of the demands of the dissenters were being met. In one of his speeches to nominate an alternative, Congressman Matt Gaetz suggested that Mr. McCarhty had been systematically selling “shares” of himself to the lobbyists of “K” Street for years and that now there was nothing else to sell. Gaetz might have been more convincing if he was not such an effective salesman of himself to the right-wing media.
There was obvious progress around the thirteenth ballot. By then it appeared that McCarthy had finally given away almost everything but the empty title of “speaker,” and there was nothing more to give that the right-wing complainers might want other than his head. There was only one thing that was not clear, and that was how the few remaining “never Kevins” who seemed to genuinely detest the idea of McCarthy’s speakership might be appeased.
The expectation was that on the fourteenth ballot enough of the opposition would be satisfied with what they had gained, or what McCarthy had lost, that most of them would either vote for him or just vote “present” which would allow McCarthy to have a mathematical majority with the votes he had already bought. That did not happen.
Representative Matt Gaetz who had been the most vicious of McCarthy’s adversaries did not answer when his name was called to vote. After everyone else had voted, Gaetz had the last vote. He let the tension build because by that point he had to vote for McCarthy if McCarthy was to win. Gaetz voted “present” which meant McCarthy had lost again. There was an audible groan throughout the Republican side of the chamber. A motion was made to adjourn for the weekend.
While the vote for adjournment was being counted McCarthy charged up the aisle to confront Gaetz who was sitting with Representative Lauren Boebert, another “never Kevin” voter. Almost simultaneously Congressman Mike Rogers who McCarthy had named as the next Chairman of the House Armed Services Committee had to be restrained from slugging Gaetz. McCarthy arrived as Rogers was being restrained and began giving Gaetz a piece of his mind during the vote counting to see if the House could agree to adjourn for the weekend. Apparently, about this time President Trump called one or more of the dissenters. Then something happened. Suddenly, many of the house members, including McCarthy, rushed to the front to change their vote from “yes” to adjourn to “no.”
As the vote to adjourn was reversed, it was obvious that the ice had broken and that the long process would be over on the fifteenth ballot. I had seen enough. I went to bed. What I missed was the speech by Hakeem Jeffries, the new Democratic minority leader. I did not realize that the protocol for the party going out of power is to ceremoniously hand the symbol of power, the gavel, to the new speaker. As Jeffries handed McCarthy the gavel that he had purchased from the far right by virtually selling his soul and granting the radical right-wingers the powers and positions they demanded, Jeffries used the moment to give a fifteen-minute speech during which he contrasted the objectives of the two parties. If you are a Democrat the speech was sweet. If you were a Republican, it was not so good. It was a well-delivered speech that brought a fresh, young Barack Obama to mind. (Click the link and judge for yourself.)
I am sure McCarthy was just wanting the speech to end so he could pound the gavel he had bought and smile for the cameras. Jeffries took his time and used every letter of the alphabet to describe the positions that his party would defend over the next two years. I wish that the “we” he was describing in his speech was inclusive of all members of the 118th Congress, but he could only speak for the Democrats.
We’ll always put American values over autocracy, benevolence over bigotry, the constitution over the cult, democracy over demagogues, economic opportunity over extremism, freedom over fascism
Governing over gaslighting, hopefulness over hatred, inclusion over isolation, justice over judicial overreach, knowledge over kangaroo courts, liberty over limitation, maturity over Mar-a-Lago, normalcy over negativity, opportunity over obstruction, people over politics, quality of life issues over Qanon.
Reason over racism, substance over slander, triumph over tyranny, understanding over ugliness, voting rights over voter suppression, working families over the well-connected, xenial over xenophobia, yes we can over you can’t do it and zealous representation over zero-sum confrontation.
Jeffery’s speech was like the gift of a small flashlight at the beginning of a journey down a very long dark tunnel. It was a speech to give heart to his colleagues who will have to attend many pointless committee meetings and tolerate many moments of frustration. Perhaps a better metaphor than a dark tunnel for what lies ahead is two years of treading water. When you are in a dark tunnel you might be going someplace. When you are treading water you are just trying not to drown as you hold on to the hope that help might eventually arrive.
You might ask why I watched most of the tedious process when I could have just read an article that saved me several hours of screen time which I could have spent more profitably doing something that might benefit someone. You could have asked me the same question about why I wasted three hours watching the Patriots lose to Buffalo. The answer to both questions was that if a miracle occurred, I wanted to see it in real-time.
What was interesting about the vote for speaker was that the Democrats voted together for Jeffries on every ballot. If just five moderate Republican House members decided that they did not want to subject the nation to the negativity that the far right was presenting, they could possibly have cut a deal with the Democrats that would have created an infinite number of possibilities for progress over the next two years. If just five of those Republicans who came from progressive congressional districts where President Biden won had tried to negotiate some form of shared power as we see in countries with parliamentary governments we would be facing a different picture for the next two years. Even as I write that “what if” I know that the answer is “Not until pigs fly.”
You may be surprised to know that in the 2022 election, there were actually fourteen Republicans elected from districts that Biden carried in 2020. Many of those seats were in California or New York. One of those seats is held by the infamous George Santos of the faux résumé.
Well, the Patriots did not have a miracle win, and Kevin McCarthy got his gavel in exchange for almost everything he had or might ever be. You and I will get to watch the House do nothing over the next two years but conduct investigations and close down the government by refusing to extend debt limits. I don’t expect legislation to come from the House or get through the House that might address the social determinants of health. Fortunately, the last Congress did pass some import bills that will fund some efforts to curb global warming and begin to repair our vulnerable infrastructure.
My major sense of loss associated with the takeover of the Hosue by a far-right minority is that there will be no legislation passed in the next two years that might further address the core issues of poverty, housing, women’s reproductive rights, gun control, immigration, and many other problems that might help all Americans as relief is given to the most vulnerable souls among us.
Another concern is whether or not the House will undermine support for Ukraine. Earlier this week two responsible Republicans from a different day, Condoleezza Rice and Robert Gates, wrote straightforwardly in The Washington Post about the importance of increasing our support to Ukraine. One of the recurrent themes of the Freedom Caucus is a Trumpian admiration of authoritarian leaders and apprehension about the expense of supporting Ukraine. Rice and Gates are very clear and direct about why we must help Ukraine more now. They write:
Increasingly, members of Congress and others in our public discourse ask, “Why should we care? This is not our fight.” But the United States has learned the hard way — in 1914, 1941 and 2001 — that unprovoked aggression and attacks on the rule of law and the international order cannot be ignored. Eventually, our security was threatened and we were pulled into conflict. This time, the economies of the world — ours included — are already seeing the inflationary impact and the drag on growth caused by Putin’s single-minded aggression. It is better to stop him now, before more is demanded of the United States and NATO as a whole. We have a determined partner in Ukraine that is willing to bear the consequences of war so that we do not have to do so ourselves in the future.
As I look forward in 2023, I am anticipating a difficult year for those whose inclinations fall on the positive side of Minority Leader Jeffries’ alphabet exercise. It will be much less difficult than 2017-2018, and even better than 2018-2020, but less progress will be made than what we often thought was difficult from 2021-2022. It amuses me to reflect on the last two years as the best of the last six, but we do live in a difficult world where not losing ground may be a victory.
I am praying that in 2023 we have no further pressure from the pandemic, that we will have a semisoft landing with inflation, that the Ukrainians find a way to victory over their invaders, and that we can use the tools that we gained from legislation passed over the last two years to continue to make progress toward the realization of the ideals in Leader Jeffries’ speech. Oh, and that Kevin McCarthy finds a way to minimize the success of the far right as they try to make progress on their journey toward an America which would feel like a foreign country to me.
One Nice Thing About Winter
No matter the season, evenings are a special time for me. I am not alone. The approaching evening has meaning for many people. We often talk about lovely summer evenings, and I am sure that summer evenings are what Mary Lathbury was thinking about when she wrote the lovely hymn “Day Is Dying in the West” for the opening assembly on August 6, 1877, at the famous Lake Chautauqua Institute in upstate New York.
The Chautaugua Institute is still in vibrant operation. Intellectuals and artists still gather every summer at this lovely site in upstate New York. Unfortunately, the most recent event at Chautaugua to have received international attention was the attempted murder last summer of the author Salmon Rushdie.
I have never been to Chautaugua, but I have heard Garrison Keillor broadcast “Praire Home Companion” from its stage. I am sure that the sunsets that inspired Mary Lathbury still occur every summer. You probably know the melody of her homage to lovely evenings and maybe even know the words:
Day is dying in the west;
heaven is touching earth with rest;
wait and worship white the night
sets the evening lamps alight
through all the sky.
I invite you to click here to hear the hymn. The associated video may do more to make my point that evening is a special time than the hymn or my analysis. I think that transcendent moments are more likely to occur as evening approaches than at any other time of day. We don’t spend as much time outdoors in the evening during the winter when it is frequently overcast, but on clear evenings the setting sun has a lower angle that can create some effects that are equally rewarding to those I enjoy on long summer evenings. I don’t look for these rare moments so when they occur they are always a very pleasant surprise.
The last few weeks have been hard for me because of two falls. Late Monday afternoon I was feeling better, better enough to do one of those mundane tasks that I enjoy–bring in firewood from my woodshed. I have a cart and the routine is to load up the cart and then push or pull it to my deck and up a ramp to the deck and the door to my living room. As I was pulling the cart along the snowy path by the lake between the woodshed and the deck, I was surprised by the gift of the lovely evening sky. I stopped and just marveled at the scene. It amazes me that it is the same scene that I see every day, but every day the scene changes. The picture in today’s header fails to capture all of the beauty that I enjoyed, but I decided to use it anyway, but that is only half of the story.
I usually send the picture that becomes my header to my son who is a musician, artist, and communications professional. He crops the picture, adds lettering, and sends it back to me. This cycle usually occurs midweek, but Monday evening I knew that I wanted to use the picture so I sent it to him.
Every Monday evening for the last twelve years this same son has uploaded a new song to the Internet. I usually look for the song before I go to bed, and it is always there. To my surprise when I opened his website, I discovered that his song and the picture he posted with it also revealed a moment of inspiration from looking at the sky at sunset. His picture may transmit my thought better than mine.
He introduces his post with a few words:
Notes: The other evening I was heading into the house and I paused to snap this picture of the sunset. I continued on my way up the walk, but then I stopped myself. I wanted to spend a minute enjoying the sunset as more than just an opportunity for a nice photo. I listened to the stillness of the evening. I breathed deeply and watched my breath form clouds in the winter air. I lingered. It was a nice moment. This song is an attempt to draw it out just a little longer.
It is possible that we were looking at the same sunset. We certainly had the same feeling. His words were:
Only in winter, this light
The hour it spells across the sky
The stillness of frozen spaces
Only the winter’s graces
Who am I?
I’ll not be cold in the night
I’m where I’m meant to be
Painted like stillness in motion
Down where the trees reach the ocean
Who am I?
I’ll not be cold in the night
I’m where I’m meant to be
I hope that this weekend you might have a transcendent moment out in the cold.
Be well,
Gene
