So what do you want?
“We the people…”
“All men are created equal…”
“Life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness…”
“Liberty and justice for all…”
“Land of the free, home of the brave…”
“Give me your tired, your poor,
Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free…”
“I have a dream….”
What do these words mean to you?
Like many of my friends on the left, I’m grappling with the news of the passing of the Notorious RBG, the honorable Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg. She fought so hard for so many in this country, people who had been cast aside by the system, ignored by the system. She did it with honor, wisdom, fairness and integrity. And tonight she rests in power, reunited with her husband and her ancestors, remarkably, perhaps, on this the start of the Jewish new year.
When I saw the news, my jaw dropped and I yelled out, perhaps a bit dramatically. Darcy came running down the stairs and when she read the caption, she yelled out, too. Later as she called her parents, she said I was calling to wish you Happy New Year, but instead, I’m calling to let you know that Ruth Ginsburg died. More shock, yelling and expletives occurred.
Oh I know, I know there are people jumping up and down with glee at the prospect of cementing a “decades-long move to the right” for the Supreme Court. I know how all that is already shaking out.
And I don’t know if I can speak to them, I don’t know if they can hear me (or want to) though I certainly hope so.
But I will speak to and possibly for those who I think do hear me. And I don’t just mean Democrats.
I’m talking about Americans.
Because what I’m talking about here is not about Republican or Democrat. I know we think it’s about the left and the right, but it shouldn’t be, at least not at its core.
This whole year — the pandemic, the recession, the reckoning on race, the presidential election campaigns, and now this — has been about who we are as Americans. What we believe in our collective soul, not what we have been manipulated into believing because of our politics.
Too many of us have allowed our politics to inform our values. It’s supposed to be the other way around. Our values should inform our politics.
So what do you value?
I know we won’t agree on everything, that’s humanly impossible. But can’t we agree on enough big things about what we value as a people, that we can focus on THOSE things? Instead of what we disagree on? Instead of what divides us? (Because the truth is, if we can’t, then we actually don’t have a United States of America any more, we simply have two different countries occupying some of the same spaces; and that thought horrifies me.)
A country is much more than its borders. It is its shared values and beliefs and hopes and dreams and convictions.
So, who are we, and who do you want us to be?
Do you want a country for all of us or just some of us? Because if you — if we — want a country for all of us, we’re going to have to fight for it.
We’re going to have to fight that part of our own nature to look out only for self, and fight for that other part of our nature to care about one another, work together, and be in communion with other humans.
And some of you are going to have to fight harder for that country, especially on behalf of those that this country has ignored, overlooked, disadvantaged and marginalized. for much of its existence (in no particular order):
- Women
- Girls
- LGBTQ+ people
- Workers
- Poor people
- Sick people
- Black people
- People of color
- Immigrants
- Those with different abilities
- Veterans
- Indigenous people
Listen y’all, this is the majority. This is the future. As I said before, I felt this year was the beginning of the last battle for equality and equity. Are you in?
Because truth be told, if you are ANY of the people on the list below, then you should be an ally of ALL of the people in the list above:
- People who believe your vote should count
- People who believe in equality
- People who believe in liberty
- People who believe in justice
So here’s the thing. I don’t know what will happen with Mitch McConnell, Donald Trump and this Supreme Court vacancy over the next 45 days or the next four months. I am focused on the long game. The next four years, the next 40 years. And beyond. And that my friend is about voting.
Show. Up. And. Vote.
If you want equality and you want representation, it doesn’t have to matter what your “normal” political affiliation is, just vote for equality and for your vote to count in the future, for you to be represented.
If you want liberty and justice — that is, fairness inherently in how decisions are made that affect you — it doesn’t have to matter what your “normal” political affiliation is, just vote for liberty and justice.
I know that if every American who believes in equality, who wants to be fairly represented by their government, and who believes in liberty and justice for all shows up to vote, we can begin to find our way finally, redemptively, and perhaps lastingly, to a real unity. To a truly United States of America. There is a long road ahead to that place, but it starts with voting.
So let’s make that the ultimate memory of 2020.
Love y’all. Mean it. Vote.
