My first job out of college I worked for a governmental entity where I received some of my greatest lessons. Early on during my tenure with the organization, several employees secretly created “dummy organizations” in order to steal money from the company. It became so serious that one day the FBI got involved and escorted all of us out of the building with nothing but our purses/wallets and we were not allowed to return until an investigation cleared us of any wrongdoing. It was an unbelievable time for someone like me, young and naïve. It was also a difficult time for the staff as a whole – there were those trying to defend their involvement in the corruption and those who were so angered by the corruption, they were willing to lose their job – and in some cases, their lives – in order to speak up and do what was right. When those of us who were cleared were called to return to the office, we had an office divided. Because as hard as it is to believe, there were people who thought that those who spoke up, shouldn’t have. There were calls for the whistleblowers to lose their job, in some cases, their law licenses, or at the very least, support from their colleagues. As someone who had no experience in situations such as this, I had no idea how we were going to be able to come together. But something deep inside me knew that we had to find a way, that it would be imperative not only for the people we served but for our own moral integrity.
As I write this week’s blog, we are two days away from the Presidential Inauguration and I find myself feeling much as I did almost 30 years ago. Although I have many more years of experience under my belt, I don’t know if I am any better prepared or more knowledgeable as to how we come together as a nation. How do we unite and change the hearts and minds of people when there has been so much hate? But just like years ago, something deep inside me knows that we have to find a way to heal the mental health of our nation. As the great Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. stated, “A civilization can flounder as readily through moral bankruptcy as financial bankruptcy”.
We recently recognized and celebrated Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr’s birthday. Many, when quoting Dr. King, think back to his “I Have A Dream” speech. However, I would encourage you to listen to his 1967 speech in Chicago titled, “The Three Evils of Society”. It is eerily prophetic of our current time. There is now an outcry of uniting, moving forward, and coming together from the same people who not even two weeks ago were wanting to overturn our democracy. And the question becomes how do you unite with people who are racist and white nationalist, who wanted to hang and who wanted to kidnap, hold hostage and execute our elected officials? Some would say there is no uniting with them. In Dr. King’s speech, he understood the hurt feelings that come from the “dark hour in the affairs of man” and laments that it’s “hard to escape the disillusionment”.
And that is the hard part, right? The disillusionment. I believe the only way to begin healing is to recognize what we’ve been through. The last four years have emboldened a segment of our population that not only espouses racist and white supremacy beliefs but has continued with the lies of an illegitimate election. And it’s one thing if everyday people believe the lies they hear their President repeat, but when some of our elected officials falsely claim the lies as truth as well, we begin to wonder if our democracy is forever broken and question how we even begin to fix it.
In Dr. King’s prophetic speech, he said that only through our revolutionary spirit will we be able to heal as a nation. Not until there is a “radical revolution of values” will justice prevail. He said, “A true revolution will cause us to question the fairness of justice of many of our past and present policies”. And I believe that is where we begin to heal. The problems of racial and economic injustice are buried deep in the policies and laws our country has had for years and until those change, we will continue to revisit the horror we witnessed on January 6. We as a country must choose humanism. And we need to elect members to Congress who also choose humanism. Our vote is the only way we can get policies and laws changed in this country therefore, we need to ensure we are voting for those who have the same values as we do. And when we find that those who we entrusted with our vote can no longer be trusted, we must hold them accountable and expel or vote them out.
In Dr. King’s speech in 1967, he asked what happens to a dream deferred. A dream he talked about in 1963. A dream where children will not be judged by the color of their skin but by their character. A dream where the crooked places will be made straight. When a dream is deferred, “there will be neither rest nor tranquility in America”. But through our faith, we continue to have hope. Just as Dr. King had hoped on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial in August 1963, we too must continue to have hope. Hope in each other and hope in ourselves. That, my friends, is the only way we can heal this country. It begins in our homes. We speak truth to our children and grandchildren, and we share the history. Yes, even the sometimes ugly truth of our history. But we can’t just hope. We have to work too. So, after we get our own houses in order, we stand up, speak out, and do what is right. As Dr. King so eloquently stated in his 1967 speech:
“On some positions, coward asks the question is it safe? Expediency asks the question is it politic? Vanity asks the question is it popular? But consciousness asks is it right? On some positions, it is necessary for the moral individual to take a stand that is neither safe, nor politic, nor popular, but he must do it because it is right”. So many things have happened since March 2020. We have seen and heard things we probably never thought we would in our lifetime. And we have endured so much pain – pain for our family and friends and pain for our country. I know I have been changed and I know others have too. With this new presidency, there is a chance for us to start over. We must commit to healing ourselves and our country. If you’ve been changed, you can no longer sit in silence. Let us come together to support and help repair our brokenness. Let us be the spark for uniting. Let us ignite our revolutionary spirit.