LIFT EVERY VOICE AND SING
Stony the road we trod
Bitter the chastening rod
Felt in the days when hope unborn had died
Yet with a steady beat
Have not our weary feet
Come to the place for which our fathers sighed?
We have come over a way that with tears has been watered
We have come, treading our path through the blood of the slaughtered
Out from the gloomy past
‘Til now we stand at last
Where the white gleam of our bright star is cast
James Weldon Johnson (1871-1938)
* * *
I hear talk of “a long, dark winter.” And I hear talk of “light at the end of the tunnel.”
If you’re an optimist, that light is sunshine.
If you’re a pessimist, that light is a long, long, long way off.
If you’re a realist (or cynic), that light could be a train’s headlamp.
Well, it could be.
Hope has been crushed before.
In August 1619, English settlers of the Virginia colony purchased 20 Africans. And thus began a long, long, long dark winter for Africans in this country. Over the next 250 years thousands of Africans arrived in chains and shackles to be bought and sold.
To balance Southern representation in Congress, the US Constitution counted a slave as “three-fifths a person.” The Fugitive Slave Act of 1850 declared enslaved people “property.” Runaways would be returned to their owners like runaway mules. The Dred Scott decision of 1857 denied citizenship to anyone of African ancestry.
The long, dark winter persisted.
And then on January 1, 1863, Abraham Lincoln issued the Emancipation Proclamation. Frederick Douglass and other abolitionists rejoiced. They saw light at the end of the tunnel. Finally!
Free at last! Thank God we are free at last!
But hope was soon crushed.
Promises were broken.
Reconstruction collapsed.
The federal government refused to enforce civil and voting rights established in the 14th and 15th Amendments. White supremacy strode on, lynching thousands, torching homes and churches, suppressing black votes. Jim Crow ruled the South. Blacks were incarcerated by the thousands.
The long, dark winter persisted.
Persists.
Well, at least one long, dark winter will soon be over. A vaccine is coming our way at warp speed!
It’s amazing what we can do when we want to. It only takes focus, will, ingenuity, and a lot of money.
COVID is not all that ails our nation.
_______________________
See Paula’s floral design on the home page.
How much racism is really a manifestation of men’s fear of being “womanized”? African Americans got the right to vote in 1870 with the 15th Amendment. Women finally gained voting rights in 1920 with the 19th Amendment. If you look at American history, women’s rights have again and again been submerged into issues dealing with racism. Why? Are men afraid of the dark mysteries of women’s reproductive endowments? If there’s one thing the Bible got right, it was putting the story of Adam and Eve first. First came sexism, then racism. Let us leave the place not only where fathers–but MOTHERS–have sighed.
COVID is not all that ails the nation indeed! We still have not dealt adequately with either of our two original sins, of which racism is one. Perhaps worse is that some, or many, think racism is exaggerated or perhaps nonexistent. As for the First Americans, it seems that our treatment of them is swept under a rug, not to be seen or thought about, except on very rare occasions.
All true. It’s not either or. Interesting, too, how rigid white male supremicists are doubling down wth their attacks now that women and all of color are gaining power.
It truly IS amazing what we can do when we put our minds to it: … The Constitution, vaccines to end polio, smallpox, measles, and now COVID-19…planes, trains, ships, trained men & women to fight the Nazi regime…
IMAGINE what we could do if we applied spiritual solutions to the economic problems we face – grace, compassion, justice, equality and faith in the basic rights and basic similarities we all have… cherishing what we have in common… TOGETHER, UNITED, anything is possible – light at the end of the tunnel.
Thank you for your heartfelt condemnation of racism. And thank you, thank you, Pat! Now the “me too” movement is being minimized. Around the world and through the centuries the most common form of prejudice and unequal treatment is, by a long way, toward women. This is not to minimize racism. Thank God it is being addressed. Now it’s time to address equally the often horrifying victimization of women still in many countries and cultures. sometimes including our own.
Pete Seeger’s “Turn, turn, turn (To everything there is a season)” suggests that no Archetypal behavior will ever go away, just ebb and flow. And then there is enlightenment? Maybe, or maybe just a different river to flow in.
Thank you Randy and Ardyth for pushing us to think about where we are and where we might end up if we don’t start thinking and acting like compassionate adults. Imagine what we could do!