It’s Up To Us

I was speaking to an old friend recently, and he said that he didn’t see who would be our “hero.” The right wing has theirs, the one we’ve viewed as a buffoon who has managed to throw a wrecking ball into so many of our institutions in a few weeks. And we have some very clever and insightful champions, like Elizabeth Warren, Pete Buttigieg, and for many, AOC and Bernie Sanders (and more recently, Jasmine Crockett). But can any of them inspire a broad movement, as Obama did in 2008?

I’m actually not certain that any hero is the determining factor, though. In each case, wasn’t the real push coming from broader conditions? Was LBJ really that inspiring a President, or was he pushed into leading us with groundbreaking legislation? 

What about MLK Jr?

An Exceptional Leader, To Put It Mildly

Martin Luthor King Jr. was indeed a great man – my brother had the good fortune to briefly work with him, helping out a bit with one of his speeches, and unsurprisingly he was very impressed by the man. In one of my brother’s autobiographical memoirs, he wrote: “There began my four year study of his regal posture, nonverbal leadership confidence, speaking tone shifts, and fully focused attention on whomever he was spending time with. What was It about this man, our human family cousin, to endear him so completely to those of us whose path he crossed? Existentialists might say it was his clear righteous purpose in life, a primary mission he was willing to die for. And did.”

Part of what stood out about the man, in addition to his critical work on civil rights, was his expansion to economic justice, and his willingness to openly oppose the American expansion of the Vietnam War. My brother reported: “Almost all staff advised against these initiatives, especially the Vietnam one … King reflected quietly. Silence. Then he announced he would do the right thing.”

It took many years and many lives lost before our leaders abandoned the Vietnam misadventure. Arguably, the battle for racial equity is still ongoing, 60 years after the passage of the Civil Rights Act. And with the mindless, kneejerk reaction against all initiatives even hinting at “Diversity, Equity, Inclusion” (all of which I had thought were positive things), we seem to be taking steps backward. So even with a hero, a great man, and great achievements, history moves along with fits and starts.

Here and now, is it a hero that we need?

In the 70s I used to read the comic strip “Pogo”. One of the phrases I recall from that cartoon was, “We have found the enemy, and it is us.” While there have certainly been villains in our story, ultimately it is the American people who have brought us to this point. But if we are the enemy, we are also the hero. We are the ones who have made America a multiracial, multicultural society. We are the ones who can sometimes look up from our personal problems and joys, and join together to change the world. We’ve done it before, and we can do it again.

And we must. There is no one else. Groups like Indivisible can work to rally people for events, the Democratic Party can provide support for candidates to oppose the looming autocracy, and even professional groups like the American Medical Association can fight against the ignorance that threatens public health. Scientists and our supporters can rally against the destruction of the core systems that protect and advance us (there are rallies in Tempe and Tucson today on this very topic).

“We are the ones we have been waiting for”

A recent analysis by Erica Chenoweth has suggested that a tipping point for the effectiveness of nonviolent protest is for 3.5% of the population to participate. We’re not there yet. I wouldn’t claim that this number is a law of nature; but it is certainly true that our representatives in government can often respond to widespread public action. And it’s an even more reliable truth that lacking such public pressure, we can’t count on government to do anything. Or as Lincoln reportedly said, “In this age, in this country, public sentiment is everything. With it, nothing can fail; against it, nothing can succeed.”

This is where we are now. There is a malignant force that has gained power in our country, and we need to oppose it. Publicly, and in any peaceful way that we can. It’s not going to be easy, but there is no alternative.

We are the heroes we have been waiting for. 

All of us.