Addressing the challenges of our polarized times
Michael Eric Dyson argues that America has “washed the grit” from Dr. King’s rhetoric in order to get to a place where he can be admired by the country at large.
I’ve been thinking recently about “where I’m from” and its impact on my life and work.
In the midst of one of the most turbulent weeks in our recent civic life, I attended the play Lincolnesque last Saturday at Washington’s Keegan Theatre. First released in 2009, this new production couldn’t have come at a better time. Here’s the synopsis: “Leo has more on his plate than he can handle. He is a speechwriter for an endangered mediocre Congressman, in the final month before a do-or-die mid-term election. His new boss Carla is a dominating message maven who has been brought in from the corporate world to try and save the campaign. And his brother Francis is a psychiatric outpatient recently released from St. Elizabeth’s Hospital, despite having a powerful delusion that he is Abraham Lincoln. Desperate for inspiration, Leo turns to Francis for help writing “Lincolnesque” speeches, hoping that Lincoln’s transformative oratory will revive his boss’s career.” Playwright John Strand uses humor and plot twists to bring Leo and Carla to the point of stealing Francis’ “Lincolnesque” citations for the final campaign speech that puts the Congressman over the top. The …
Congressman John Lewis is a hero to many. A hero whose skull was cracked more than fifty years ago while working for justice. So in June when he sent out the following on his twitter account, it was a message worth hearing that day and every day: “Do not get lost in a sea of despair. Be hopeful, be optimistic. Our struggle is not the struggle of a day, a week, a month, or a year, it is the struggle of a lifetime. Never, ever be afraid to make some noise and get in good trouble, necessary trouble.” Lewis wasn’t calling for a “don’t worry, be happy” type of response to the issues of our times. Instead he knows—from more than five decades in the trenches—that despair creates apathy, and apathy destroys activism. One activist who was in Lewis’ training camps in Mississippi in 1964 notes that “Giving in to despair is lazy surrender.” A few years ago, when the National Trust conference was held in Nashville, John Lewis challenged us to believe in the …
Walking back from today’s July 4th parade in Takoma Park, I overheard two women — both wearing an “I Care Do U” sticker — talking about the diversity seen in this progressive enclave from the participants in this most all-American of holidays. There’s your medical marijuana advocates, Christian evangelicals, 9/11 truthers, Republican and Democratic candidates for county executive, the First Panamanian Marching Band of Maryland, Doggie Washerette, the MAGA (Mobsters are Governing America) PAC, all the public works vehicles (love the lawn mower guy spinning around in circles), Boy and Girl Scouts, the Intergalactic Female Motorcycle Federation, the Silver Spring Yacht Club, and the Takoma Park Lesbians and Gays all mixed together. And don’t forget about the Reel Mower Precision Drill Team. There’s a lot of chatter in the right wing entertainment universe these days about political correctness shutting down free speech. But today’s experience in Takoma Park shows that this narrative about the progressives not hearing from different voices isn’t necessarily true. Everyone had their say, everyone was treated with respect (if some were …
In the midst of the disruption and turmoil that can be found around us, I have been reminded of the quote that began with Mark Twain and then was adapted by the great Negro League pitcher and philosopher Satchel Paige: “It’s not what you don’t know that hurts you, it’s what you know that just ain’t so.” We seem to be having an epidemic these days of “what you know that just ain’t so-itis.” There are many reasons this could be the case, but an important one is that we’re bombarded with information that requires work on our part to filter and understand. Warren Bennis has written that “adults learn best when they take charge of their own learning. Taking charge of your own learning is a part of taking charge of your life, which is the sine qua non in becoming an integrated person.” Consider where we get information today. In our interconnected yet at times isolated world, we all fall into the trap of letting others tell us how to think. It is easy …
A trip through Mississippi, where Bill Ferris quoted a relative who said “he was raised on cornbread and recollections.”
I made a resolution in 2016 to return and read Rebecca Solnit’s Men Explain Things to Me once or twice a year, just to keep that clear voice and perspective front of mind. International Women’s Day seemed to be a special moment this year to act on that resolution. I took time today during my lunch break to read, once again, of the silencing that occurs when men talk over women. As Solnit phrases it, “Being told that, categorically, he knows what he’s talking about and she doesn’t, however minor a part of any given conversation, perpetuates the ugliness of this world and holds back its light.” We are living in an age when our civic discourse shows just how serious the impacts of this silencing can be. Solnit ends the postscript to the original essay by noting, “Having the right to show up and speak are basic to survival, to dignity, and to liberty.” I think about this dynamic a great deal. When I’m learning from and celebrating the accomplishments of women, I am …
Passion is one universal key to what moves the world forward, yet our passions are the part of us that doesn’t require approval from others. In fact, the search for prestige through work often gets in the way of our passion. As Y-Combinator founder Paul Graham notes, “Prestige is like a powerful magnet that warps even your beliefs about what you enjoy. It causes you to work not on what you like, but what you’d like to like.” I think of passion as that which takes you out of your daily life, that lets you feel closest to your truest self. Graham describes it as “what doesn’t seem like work to you?” even if it is your life’s work. These insights led me to consider what we could learn about each other if we truly understood the passions that let us feel closest to our truest self. Passions may be simple things. I can wander around the desks in our part of the office and make guesses about the passions of my colleagues. Sports cut across …
This Wednesday features a coming together of events that cannot be a coincidence. For those who believe in romance, the 14th of February is, of course, Valentine’s Day. On the same day, Christian believers — especially of the liturgical persuasion — will observe Ash Wednesday, the first day of the penitential season of Lent leading up to Easter. And for those like Annie Savoy* and me who worship at the Church of Baseball, February 14th is when, as spring training begins, we hear those magical words “pitchers and catchers report” that take ever-optimistic fans into flights of fancy about the prospects for their favorite team. I’m going with the thought that this particular February 14th is a harmonic convergence of Hope and Redemption.** I was thinking of those two themes and how much impact they can have on our lives as I’ve been reading Ron Chernow’s new biography of Ulysses S. Grant. Chernow is one of the few historians who, through deep scholarship and powerful writing, can drive the country toward a full reappraisal of …
