I started writing this on Memorial day May 25th, 2020. We’re still in the Covid-19 pandemic, yet hopefully moving closer to the end. It was also the same day that George Floyd was horrifically murdered by a police officer in Minnesota sparking off riots across the country. I’m writing this with my middle daughter in mind as she reminds me so much of myself at that age as a sophomore in college. As an American who has lived on both sides of our cultural divide, I’m also writing this to add my voice to the public discourse regarding how we should move forward.
Our country finds itself once again deeply and painfully divided. How is it possible that at so many times in our history, we have been divided almost equally by significant issues that run so deeply and passionately on both sides that they divide communities and families? From federalists versus anti federalists who disagreed about how much power the federal government should have close to the birth of our country, to the expulsion of the Indians to the west, to slavery, prohibition and our current conservatives vs. progressives, these are just some of our country’s biggest divides. It is truly astonishing. It’s as if the division and therefore lack of unity has been in some way brought on by forces beyond our control from our very beginning.
I believe in so many ways that we all are much more alike than we may want to believe. None of us chose to be born where we were born or to the people who took care of us or didn’t. We all wanted to be loved and taken care of and to feel safe. We also wanted to have the freedom to pursue what we thought would make us happy. Unfortunately, this world is filled with injustice and there is not an equal distribution of wealth or power. This has been true throughout history and throughout history people have strived to improve their situations. The question for every generation has been, what to do about the injustice and lack of equality. This is ultimately the question at the heart of our divide. It is not a new question. Every small group of “revolutionaries” throughout history have debated what to do after they’ve overthrown the governments that they felt were oppressing them. It’s simply not enough to revolt. You need to put something better in place of what you have just torn down or you very well may end up with something much worse.

We in the United States have been so fortunate to live under a system of government where power is transitioned peacefully every 4 or 8 years with no blood shed. This is not something any of us should ever take for granted. In so many countries, military generals are the ones that control the power and that is for a very simple reason. Generals command the military and the military has the power to force people to do even what they don’t want to do. So after our revolution and not even immediately after, but several years after our founding fathers finally created a government, and most importantly wrote a constitution, that established a federal government with written laws. I realize that many of us believe that the constitution is old and does not adequately speak to the conditions in which we now live, however the constitution represents the law of our land. Without it, there wouldn’t be any commonly agreed upon boundaries to keep order within our country.
Ask anyone who has lived in a country where the government failed and where there was no law and order, what they desperately longed for? In order to flourish as a family, community or country, you need order. You need to be able to settle disputes in a peaceful manner. Without the order put in place by governments, disputes would be settled by whomever acquires the most force. Think of the wild west. When there is anarchy or lawlessness in a town or a country it is most vulnerable to be taken over by a bully or dictator if that bully or dictator brings order to the chaos. It’s much more difficult to establish a representative government where separate groups of people with widely varying ideas have to come together and agree upon a government under the laws of which they are all willing to obey. This is the legacy of the United States of America. Against all odds, very separate and distinct groups came together and created a system of government upon which the majority could agree. There is a long line of failed governments and governments that hold onto power simply by force. Ours was one that was truly different.
Was our government perfect? No, far from it. For starters there was the issue of slavery which was not addressed in the Constitution and that in the end was only resolved through a horrific civil war. What was incorporated into the constitution was a mechanism that enabled changes to be made to it. Without the bill of rights, the first 10 amendments to the constitution, it never would have been adopted. Most interesting to me as I look back on it today is the first part of the 1st amendment. It says “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof.” Basically, this is saying that the government can’t tell you what to think or believe and it makes it against the law to establish one religion or denomination as the country’s primary one. In fact, Thomas Jefferson said “I have sworn upon the altar of God eternal hostility against every form of tyranny over the mind of man.” This is etched around the dome of his memorial in Washington DC.
Given our current divide, it wouldn’t be remotely possible to agree on amendments to the Constitution today because it takes a two-thirds majority vote in both the House of Representatives and the Senate and establishing a new system of government would be that much more difficult. This is why the Supreme Court has been used to rule on deeply divisive cases in order to establish law. While this is not what the founders envisioned, or the ideal situation, it’s better than us slipping into anarchy.
What we need to be able to do is fight for the ideas that we want to change not through force or violence but by convincing enough of our fellow countrymen that a different way is better. As a former U. S. Peace Corps volunteer I had a strong desire to make the world a better place. I abhorred the injustice I saw in the world and I wanted to make things better. The question was how? How do you make your community, country or the world better?
Your answer really depends on how you see the world and everything in it. When I was 25 and going off to Thailand to serve in the U.S. Peace Corps, I viewed the world from a completely different perspective than I do now. I didn’t believe in God. I thought Marx was right and that God was an invention of those in power to numb the minds of the people who were not in power. I saw people as inherently good and it was just the environment that they grew up in that forced them to do things that were bad. I loved John Lennon’s song Imagine. I thought the Bible was filled with stories that couldn’t possibly be true and I thought Jesus was a good teacher and nothing more. My heroes were Martin Luther King jr. and Mahatma Gandhi. I thought Ronald Reagan needed to be replaced and I was in favor of Jesse Jackson. I was a Democrat. That was who I was and I was an American.
Fast forward to now. Now I am a Christian and a Trump Supporter. Please don’t stop reading even though you may believe that is simply unconscionable. He wasn’t my first choice in the primaries, but I would have voted for any of the Republican candidates over Hilary. Why? Because my perspective completely changed over time. I’m not focusing here on the reasons why. If you are truly interested I can tell you. My driving issue during the election was who was going to uphold the Constitution and appoint Supreme Court justices and federal judges that would interpret the constitution as originally written rather than what it “might” mean currently. There are many tweets from the President that make me cringe and that I wish he hadn’t said or hadn’t said it in quite that way, however on the things that matter most to me which he promised during the election, he’s actually done more of them than any candidate I can recall.
There are people on both sides of the divide that believe the only real solution is to completely defeat the other side or silence them, but what does that mean? That would mean the end of the country as we know it and it would mean horrible division of families, neighbors, cities and states. I don’t believe that any of us truly want that for our country no matter how deeply our convictions run. One of the things that is the same between my younger self and my older self is that I still think of Martin Luther King Jr. and Gandhi as heroes. Both of them fought against injustice and brought about tremendous change to their countries. Both of them were revolutionaries, however they did not promote violence. They promoted peaceful resistance to those laws and institutions that they and I believed needed to change.
I know it is difficult to listen to perspectives you don’t agree with considering I flip between CNN, MSNBC and Fox each night for a little while. The younger me, I’m sure, would have only been watching two of them. I also remember when the Natzis attempted to march in Skokie, Illinois where many holocast survivors lived and I remember asking how this could be allowed to happen and why the ACLU was supporting them? I was told that their speech was protected under the 1st amendment of the Constitution and all Americans have the right to share their views. The ACLU supported them because the same laws that were used against African Americans during their struggle for civil rights were being used against the Natzis. Now, when I watch how conservative speakers are treated when they go to speak at some college campuses, I see that the 1st amendment is not being enforced. I completely agree that ideas have incredible power. Ideas can cut deep and hurt people. Ideas are the seeds that ultimately lead to beliefs and actions. One of the big reasons I went to Thailand is because I had watched the movie “The Killing Fields” and I wanted to know how this could happen. I couldn’t go to Cambodia where the story in the movie took place, so I went as close as I could at the time. I wanted to know how a people could have allowed their country to be taken over through a revolution and establishment of a new government that ended up killing close to 2 million of its own citizens? I didn’t find the answer while I was in Thailand, but I do believe I have found the answer now.

All people are vulnerable to being led down perilous paths especially depending on their circumstances. For people that find themselves in more economically prosperous situations, these paths may be many, but for those who are struggling to find food and water every day the paths are few. No matter the situation you find yourself in, there are people that will be attempting to lead you in a particular direction, by sharing ideas about what you should and shouldn’t do to make your situation better. Parents, teachers, friends, relatives, community organizers, coaches, pastors, group leaders, news commentators, college professors, writers and the list could go on and on. They all have ideas about which way you should go. They all have ideas about how you can get what you want. The ideas come from somewhere, and part of our challenge is to find out if those ideas are true and actually reflect reality. Is what they are saying consistent? Is what they are saying reflective of your experience? What I have learned is that people are all going through life trying to fill a hole inside themselves with many things that won’t fill the hole. The Bible calls these things idols and the Bible says that the only one that can truly fill the hole is God.
So when you’re trying to determine what voice to listen to, ask yourself this question. What’s the motivation that may be driving the person I’m listening to? And do the words and most importantly their actions reflect the values that you care about? Unfortunately, it takes time to see if someone’s actions actually reflect the ideas they share. Both Martin Luther King Jr. and Gandhi showed their convictions over time in light of tremendous resistance. Both could have easily incited their sides to rise up in violent resistance to the forces oppressing them. They didn’t. With incredible courage they stood strong and were willing to not succumb to voices that were pushing them to lash out. Unfortunately, it sometimes takes incredible persistence and perseverance to stand strong for what you believe is right. Many times the change doesn’t happen as quickly as we might like, but it can happen. History is full of people who’ve stood up for what’s right and have persevered.
Don’t be surprised if over time you find that most Americans really want the same basic things and that the real differences are in how they intend to get them. We all want to be loved and to feel safe. We also want to have the freedom to pursue what we think will make us happy. That is why working to have a justice system that treats all Americans equally is critical. We all want justice if we have been wronged and we want to be protected from those who would harm us. My prayer is that we would all continue to work to make Martin Luther King Jr’s words a reality.

“I say to you today, my friends, though, even though we face the difficulties of today and tomorrow, I still have a dream. It is a dream deeply rooted in the American dream. I have a dream that one day this nation will rise up and live out the meaning of its creed: “We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal.” I have a dream that one day on the red hills of Georgia the son of former slaves and the sons of former slave owners will be able to sit down together at the table of brotherhood. I have a dream that one day even the state of Mississippi, a state sweltering with the heat of injustice, sweltering with the heat of oppression, will be transformed into an oasis of freedom and justice.
I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character. I have a dream … I have a dream that one day in Alabama, with its vicious racists, with its governor having his lips dripping with the words of interposition and nullification, one day right there in Alabama little black boys and black girls will he able to join hands with little white boy’s and white girls as sisters and brothers.
I have a dream today … I have a dream that one day every valley shall be exalted, every hill and mountain shall be made low, the rough places will be made plain, and the crooked places will be made straight. And the Glory of the Lord shall be revealed, and all flesh shall see it together. This is our hope. This is the faith that I go back to the South with. With this faith we will be able to hew out of the mountain of despair a stone of hope. With this faith we will be able to transform the jangling discords of our nation into a beautiful symphony of brotherhood. With this faith we will be able to work together, to pray together, to struggle together, to go to jail together, to stand up for freedom together, knowing that we will be free one day.
This will be the day when all of God’s children will be able to sing with new meaning. “My country, ’tis of thee, sweet land of liberty, of thee I sing. Land where my fathers died, land of the pilgrim ‘s pride, from every mountainside, let freedom ring.” And if America is to become a great nation, this must become true. So let freedom ring from the prodigious hilltops of New Hampshire. Let freedom ring from the mighty mountains of New York. Let freedom ring from the heightening Alleghenies of Pennsylvania. Let freedom ring from the snowcapped Rockies of Colorado. Let freedom ring from the curvaceous slopes of California.
But not only that. Let freedom ring from Stone Mountain of Georgia. Let freedom ring from Lookout Mountain of Tennessee. Let freedom ring from every hill and molehill of Mississippi, from every mountainside. Let freedom ring . . . When we allow freedom to ring… when we let it ring from every city and every hamlet, from every state and every city, we will be able to speed up that day when all of God’s children, black men and white men, Jews and Gentiles, Protestants and Catholics, will be able to join hands and sing in the words of the old Negro spiritual, “Free at last, Free at last, Great God almighty, we are free at last.”

MARTIN LUTHER KING, JR.