My Country Tis of Thee
My Country Tis of Thee
The Longest Day
Wednesday, January 6, 2021
God Bless America
Do not be afraid.
Be angry, disgusted, ashamed, embarrassed, disappointed, and sad.
But please, do not be afraid.
This advice is easily dispensed sitting behind a computer screen amid the safety and comfort of home but that does not make it counsel that we don’t firmly stand behind.
Certainly today was frightening and there are likely more scary days ahead but still we say be not afraid.
Democracy is being battered but we shall not let it break. Nearly all Americans are good, smart, brave, and honest and while normalcy has been smashed into shards of shock and shame, our general decency will not give way.
We cannot be afraid of selfish, mindless thugs or privileged, dangerous fabulists. They are frightening, of course, but we have not backed down from them and we will not. This terror and sedition will not end soon, this hate and ignorance has been with us for as long as this nation has existed and it could be that things are about to get even more perilous because the hate, the anger, the idiocy, the incompetence will soon recede into the shadows to some degree where it can lurk and grow more virulent.
But we shall not be afraid. We resolve not to hide from the truth, or run from our neighbor in the pursuit of comfort and calm. We will not be afraid to acknowledge that those we like, trust, love, work beside, and live nearby are as important pieces of the social order as we are. We don’t have to like what they believe or whom they vote for. But we have to hear them. We have to learn from the hate, the ignorance, and the fear.
We have to look into everyone and recognize their humanity. We have to rekindle their patriotism and recognize our common vulnerability. We may have to buy them a dictionary. Or a Coke. Small steps toward healing a bleeding republic.
Some must go to jail. Some must be censured and scorned. All must never be forgotten. Our remembrance of their actions and their surrender should not be kept alive out of spite or hate but out of love, safety, and patriotism. What happened today and the last four years cannot be dismissed, forgotten, or forgiven because next time, next week, tomorrow, it could be far worse.
We speak here of those who broke the law, were violent, complicit, and just plain wrong. On all levels. But again, we cannot hate everyone from the other side. Under different circumstances they could be us, we could be them.
We must find the American middle and stretch it out, and make it deep and strong and permanent. And kind. --TK
Wednesday, January 6, 2021