Our Political State ~ Not Business as Usual

LIA sticker from Left in Alabama

When I began this blog, Not Dark Yet, I first described it as “an odd mix of poetry, political commentary, and spirituality.” I later emended that to “poetry, social commentary, and spirituality,” because I realized that it is social commentary rather than political agenda that drives my concern in this blog space. I then decided that I would create a separate satirical blog, The Vidalia Onion “Fake News Rooted in the South” which I would reserve for the occasional political commentary for a satirical take on what is going on in the world of politics. (I should note that I used that term “Fake News” in 2013, before Mr. Trump began using it for the mainstream media). I had some fun with that site when I needed to express my exasperation over what those politicians were doing.

This year, however, that satirical blog has been silent since January. Real life politics has seemed so much like satire that it seemed almost a sacrilege to try to make it funny. Instead, I began a project on this blogsite that I refer to as Journalistic Poetry. I stated at the time that “The best thing that poets can do is to bear witness to the times – articulate what is happening in the moment; speak to the real life experiences of your people ... My thinking was that if I could write one poem a week there would be some chronicle of our sacred/tested/doubtful union.”

 High Stakes and Low Ebbs

Today I am stepping more into the realm of political commentary because of the increasingly high stakes at the local and national level. On the national stage we are seeing a dangerous dismantling of of our grand experiment in democracy as corporations strengthen their oligarchy while using the nation's “culture wars” to further ensconce themselves into the political fabric. 

Commentator David Brooks has been an astute observer of our national divisions. He recently pointed out that “The acceptability of Trump must also have something to do with millions of religious voters being willing to abandon the practical wisdom of their faiths — that what exists inside a person is more important than what is external, that no bad tree yields good fruit, that you should never trade spiritual humility for worldly ferocity because in humility there is strength and in pride there is self-destruction.” (1)

That abandonment of basic tenets of faith while publicly proclaiming religious beliefs has been on national display in my home state of Alabama. In a special election to fill the senate seat vacated when Jeff Sessions became Attorney General in the Trump administration, we have a choice like we have seldom seen. We have Doug Jones, a true statesman running as a Democrat. The Republican nominee is Roy Moore, a twice-removed state supreme court judge whose claim to fame is promoting his own brand of religion while presiding in court. 

Roy Moore (NBC News photo)

For years our state has had to deal with the embarrassment of Roy Moore. He was removed from office TWICE for defying lawful court orders. I don't see how that did not disqualify him from running in the Republican primary. The big problem is that so many in our state hear someone shouting the name of Jesus and wearing God on their sleeve and say “Let's get God back into the government. He's our man!” They turn a blind eye to the unethical behavior and lawless acts because, “he is one of us, he believes in God.” By our actions, we have abandoned the faith we attempt to preserve.

Religion professor Randall Balmer correctly states:

Moore claims to represent “family values” and, more broadly, evangelical Christian values. Aside from the disquieting specter of a 30-something Moore trolling shopping malls for teenage dates, Moore does not represent the evangelical movement he claims to herald. Historically, evangelicalism once stood for people on the margins, those Jesus called “the least of these.” Evangelicals in the 19th century advocated public education, so that children from less-affluent families could toe the first rungs of the ladder toward socioeconomic stability. They worked for prison reform and the abolition of slavery. They advocated equal rights, including voting rights, for women and the rights of workers to organize. The agenda of 19th- and early-20th-century evangelicals is a far cry from that of Moore and the religious right.(2)

Doug Jones (Birmingham News photo by Joe Songer)

Doug Jones, on the other hand is a statesman who would serve honorably in the senate and would represent our state well. He is the attorney who successfully prosecuted the bomber Sixteenth Street Baptist Church more than 40 years after the tragic bombing. He represents an opportunity for our state to rise above mindless rhetoric and to rationally address the real problems facing our state. Not since Gov. Albert Brewer has our state had a man of such stature and integrity to run for public office. (Albert Brewer completed Lurleen Wallace's term as governor when she died in office, and much to our state's detriment was defeated in his bid for a full term in office by George Wallace's racial scare tactics and demagoguery).

Time to Repent and Vote 

We Alabamians have tarnished the word “Christian” and have corrupted the concept of democratic government. I am sad that our corruption and ignorance have not only gained the national spotlight, but that same corruption is tarnishing the country at large. It is time for us evangelicals to repent and make restitution for our sins.

December 12 is election day in Alabama. Our choice has never been clearer. How we will choose is unfortunately still up for grabs. We could take the high road of justice and compassion, or we could choose hate, bigotry, and racism at the hands or a morally corrupt judge masquerading as a “religion and family values” man.

The sad part is, I cannot tell you today how my state will choose.

_____________________

1. "The Essential John McCain," by David Brooks, October 19, 2017, The New York Times, retrieved at https://www.nytimes.com/2017/10/19/opinion/the-essential-john-mccain.html

2. "Religion Professor Says Roy Moore Is a Fraud," by Randall Balmer, The New American Journal, retrieved at https://www.newamericanjournal.net/2017/11/religion-professor-says-roy-moore-is-a-fraud/. (Originally published in The Washington Post, November 17, 2017, under the title, "I know Roy Moore. He’s always been a con artist."



-

Signs of Hope at Sixteenth Street Baptist Church

The following essay was first posted as "The Dreamer and the Movement" this past January. At the time, as I stated in the essay, I was in mourning. I found hope at Sixteenth Street Baptist Church when I went to hear the outgoing Attorney General, Loretta Lynch. I was up in the balcony that day. I looked down and spotted Doug Jones and thought, "there is a true civic leader." Of course at the time, I had no idea he would be running for the senate. When I first heard that news, I said to myself, "Finally we have a statesman running for office!" 

While there is hope for sanity and reason in our state, whatever the outcome of our special election, I still take heart from the lesson that was brought home to me last January. That lesson was voiced by Ms. Lynch, "adversity is no cause for despair."

A Reflection on Martin Luther King Day Celebrations in Birmingham, Alabama

They said one to another, “Behold, here cometh the dreamer. Let us slay him, and we shall see what will become of his dreams.”

                                                                                     Genesis 37:19-20

A Day of Remembrance

I spent last Sunday and Monday attending special events in Birmingham in celebration of Martin Luther King Day. On Monday morning there was the 31^st annual Unity Breakfast held at the Birmingham-Jefferson Convention  Complex where we heard from elder statesmen of the movement and sat with some of the early “foot soldiers,” now gray-haired and some with bodies that were slowed and bowed down.

Photo by Cody Owens, Weld for Birmingham 

At noontime, I walked in the “Traditional March” where hundreds of people gathered at City Hall to march to  Kelly Ingram Park. Back in the early 1960s, Dr. King organized marchers in Kelly Ingram Park to march in protest on City Hall. Now that an African American has held the office of mayor of Birmingham since 1979, the Traditional March is done in reverse, beginning at City Hall and ending at Kelly Ingram Park.

It was a moving experience to place myself at the epicenter of so much civil rights history, surrounded by people who have been involved in the struggle for justice, freedom and equality. The most inspiring moment for me came with Attorney General Loretta Lynch’s speech Sunday afternoon at 16^th Street Baptist Church. 

A Big Day at 16th Street Baptist Church

I had arrived an hour early hoping to get a good seat, only to find that most people had the same idea. There was already a line on the steep front steps of the church. As I entered, I was directed along with the crowd to the balcony where the remaining seats were available. After navigating the steep winding stairs (these old buildings we made for the able-bodied!) I took a back seat along the side of the balcony. Later there would be people standing along the back wall.

Inside the church there was a diverse crowd of white, black, even some Asian and Hispanic in attendance. I looked about and spotted Doug Jones below in the main sanctuary. Jones is the attorney who successfully prosecuted two of the suspects in the 16^th Street Church bombing some 40 years after the attack in 1963.  There were, of course network TV cameras stationed unobtrusively in the back.

The event at 16^th Street Baptist Church was Ms. Lynch’s final speech as Attorney General of the United States.  Set at the historic church, the event unfolded as a traditional church service. The beautiful organ began to sound out chords more lively that might be expected in churches frequented by more staid Caucasian churchgoers. The Black church experience has always been played out on a different level. They have a long tradition of knowing that even when the body is in bondage, the spirit can soar. The choir sang the call to worship and their voices filled the sanctuary as only a black mass choir can.

An opening prayer was shouted out proclaiming that though our destination is Heaven, our task in the meantime is to make a better world.  The opening scripture was a prophetic passage from Micah chapter 6 which declares in verse 8, “He has shown thee, O man what is good, and what doth the Lord require of thee but to do justly, and to love mercy, and to walk humbly with thy God?”  

Four Spirits Sculpture, Kelly Ingram Park
(WBRC photo by Melyndo Sides)

Then there were presentations by dignitaries including Mayor William Bell and congresswoman Terri Sewell. The big excitement for the city was President Obama’s proclamation a few days earlier declaring the civil rights district of Birmingham a National Monument, thus making it part of the National Park Service. The sites of the new national monument include 16^th Street Baptist Church, Kelly Ingram Park, and the A.G. Gaston Motel.

When the time came to pass the offering plate (the pastor, Rev. Arthur Price, Jr. said, “After all, this is a Baptist Church”) the choir sang, “If it had not been for the Lord on my side, where would I be? Where would I be?” It was very moving to me just hearing that song sung in that place, especially in the context of a Martin Luther King Day celebration. After the choir had sung, the organ continued to play out the melody while some in the congregation began to joyfully sing the chorus. I could tell that it was a favorite among the congregation.

The Attorney General Speaks

Loretta Lynch at 16th St. Baptist Church (AP photo by Byrn Anderson)

When Attorney General Loretta Lynch stepped up to the pulpit, she was greeted warmly and her remarks were delivered warmly.  She held the audience's attention throughout and gave what I found to be the most important and inspiring speech given anywhere that weekend. 

Her message was one of hope grounded in the reality of the present day and founded upon the lessons of history. Ms. Lynch began her address acknowledging that 16^th Street Baptist Church “has not only borne witness to the progress of freedom in our history, it has also borne the costs of that progress.” There was the tragedy of the 1963 church bombing which took the lives of four little girls, yet the horrific news of that bombing awakened a nation and led to the passing of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and the Voting Rights Act of 1965.

Ms. Lynch recounted the many areas of progress that the country has witnessed in the advancement of freedom and equality for so many. At the same time she noted that we continue to see acts of violence against people because of their race or religion and that the current administration has worked hard to prosecute hate crimes. Moreover, even with the Voting Rights Act, we have seen setbacks as with the Supreme Court's decision in Shelby County v Holder. In spite of that ruling, Ms Lynch told of how the Justice Department continues the fight in challenging state discriminatory laws in federal court.

Not a Cause for Despair

Ms. Lynch recounted many positive signs she has seen across the country of people organizing for good in spite of (and in response to) the waves of intolerance and injustice that continue to exist.  “The lesson we draw from Dr. Martin Luther King,” she said, “is that adversity is not a cause for despair, it is a call to action.”   

The Attorney General recounted the heights of the March for Jobs and Freedom in Washington where Dr. King delivered his “I Have a Dream speech,” then pointed out that just three weeks later he came to Birmingham to give a very different speech to the people suffering grief and loss in the aftermath of the church bombing. That dream must have seemed much more fragile, she noted, than it did three weeks earlier at the Lincoln Memorial in Washington. Ms. Lynch reminded us, however, of Dr. King's words to the grief-stricken people that day: “We must not despair; we must not become bitter.” 

Plaque at Lorraine Hotel
(Photo by Michael Tersleff)

Lynch then told about the memorial at the Lorraine Hotel in Memphis, the site where Martin Luther King was assassinated. A marble plaque has been placed there bearing the inscription from Genesis 37:19-20: “They said one to another, behold, here cometh the dreamer. Let us slay him and see what becomes of his dreams” The dream, of course, has continued, though she pointed out that today there is anxiety and fear that the dream may be lost.

She went on to say that it has never been easy, nor was it ever foreordained that we would have the gains that we see today. “We are Americans and we have always pushed forward...the cause of justice is greater than any one of us.” 

Where Dreams are Made

Knowing the unease and trepidation that so many are feeling as the swearing in of a new president approaches, Ms. Lynch closed her speech with words of further encouragement:

And if it comes to pass that we do enter a period of darkness, let us remember – that is when dreams are best made.  So let us see – what shall become of Dr. King’s dream?  The Lord has already wrought a miracle by bringing us this far, and “I don’t believe he brought me this far to leave me.”

What shall become of his dream?  We shall pick it up and carry it forward.  We will not shirk, we will not falter, we will not fail.

What shall become of his dream?  We shall take this newest monument and make it a testament not just to what happened before but to what we do today.

What shall become of his dream?  We will make it ours, and we will extend it as a bridge to all those who stand on the outside of democracy looking in. 

And when our time comes, we shall pass the dream on to those who are already raising their hand and to those yet to come.  So that the arc of the moral universe continues straight and true – continues towards justice.

  
She spoke the words that I so needed to hear. When the service closed, there were tears in my eyes. As I made my way out with the many who had gathered there, it was a weighty moment. In spite of the uncertainty ahead, there was a sense of hope. As I stood on the front steps of the church watching the crowd disperse, and older black lady came up to me and asked if I would take her picture in front of the church. She handed me her smart phone and I was glad to get her picture standing on the front steps. As I handed her phone camera back to her, I commented that this service was just what I needed. “I have been in mourning,” I told her.

“We are all in mourning,” she replied, “but we're gonna make it.”   

*   *   *

(To read Attorney General Lynch's entire speech, go here)

16th Street Baptist Church
(Wikipedia photo)

-