Forward and Back

(I introduced a chapter in my new book like this and then decided it was not the best way to start that chapter. So decided to just put it here.)

 

“May you live in interesting times” someone once said and at this writing, the truth —or curse—of that is being tested in my home country of the United States. It is a time when the states have never been less “united” and between climate change and the rise of fascism and fundamentalism both nationally and worldwide, it is a time of great upheaval. Like an ongoing great earthquake, the ground beneath our feet is no longer dependable and we are all of us thrown off-balance. 

 

Democracy in the U.S. has been flawed from its inception in 1776, available to some and not others. But its vision, articulated so eloquently in The Declaration of Independence and put into law in the Constitution and the Bill of Rights, gave us the possibility of participation in a more equitable governing system unavailable under the rule of Kings and Queens. In this year of 2025, the very foundation that promised certain freedoms to all and delivered to many is being dismantled in front of our eyes. 

 

“Life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness” served as our mission statement, even as the gap yawned wide between the privileged white landowners who penned the words and signed the document and marginalized groups like Native Americans, African Americans, women, children, poor people. These were the words that allowed for the possibility of closing the gap between the promise and the reality, a process that slowly granted long-delayed rights to the above and later included groups like Latin Americans, Asian Americans, the disabled, the LBTQ community and more.

 

In spite of distances still to be traveled, all have made significant progress in cashing in the Constitution’s promissory note. It cost a lot of blood, sweat and tears to push that moral arc closer to justice, but push it we did. Always with resistance each step of the way from those who benefitted from privilege. But perseverance paid off to the point that a woman I meet at a party can introduce me to her wife without either of us batting an eye. A black man could — and did—become President and a sexual harasser could be jailed.

 

Or become President! And to use his power, enabled by an entire Repugnitan Party, to actively turning the clock back to a mythical time that never was, reversing the laws and procedures that have been the guard rails of justice, all with the permission of 80 million voters. This is a grave, grave danger to democracy, human rights and human decency. 

 

Those of us who care about such things are in a state of shock and baffled as to how to survive this battering storm, how to wake up each day with our spirit intact, how to effectively resist. Where can we turn for guidance?

 

(To find out one possible answer, buy the book when it comes out!)