Please excuse my emotional oscillations. Sometimes a cheerleader, sometimes Debbie Downer. I believe all of us can have Hope and hopelessness at the same time. We can carry idealism and reality in the same bucket. Happy and sad, weak and strong, philosophical and Pollyanna at the same time. We are all very complex beings, our world, full of grey areas. We can doubt yet still be resolved. Allow this in all of us. I think, in my case, Hope still wins out overall.
One of my greatest sources of Hope has been my view of the “big picture” from mankind’s history. Much of it has been three steps forward and two steps back. But I can truly see, through the thousands of years, that after the math, that one extra step forward has added up to thousands of steps forward now. Our progress, very real.
Throughout the centuries, the horrors of daily life for much of mankind, has been lessening, despite the 24-7 news casting of all the terrible things still happening today. The term “Human Rights” now, at least, exists. The conquerors and the pillagers are not as free as they used to be. Disease and famine, not nearly as wide-spread. Overall, human moving closer to Humanities. This very view from history, always there in my mind, gives me Hope.
Now, if I may oscillate. History mostly gives me Hope. I’ve also seen that three steps forward and two steps back is an average. It’s not always three steps forward. Not always, only two steps back. As our abilities to preserve life has increased, so has our ability to destroy life. In the last short one hundred years, with mankind’s most recent advances, hundreds of millions of lives have been saved. This, many steps forward for mankind. But these steps are nullified by our ability to destroy by the hundreds of millions. How many steps back? And now, can we save by the billions? I know we can destroy by the billions. The race is still on. Debbie Downer is still here.
Just one more oscillation, I promise this time. I know our Founding Principle is the key to winning this race, this Human Race. And our Individual action is one important goal at the heart of this Principle.
Mankind’s history shows us the progress we’ve made. But we can get complacent, we can begin to believe progress is a natural action. Like water runs downhill. That it just happens that way. That change happens with or without us. Progress has happened for thousands of years. We weren’t there, it still happened. This view, unfortunately blurs the people it took for this progress to even occur. The actual truth is progress runs uphill. Progress is not alive. It doesn’t move on its own. Progress is not a natural action. Progress is powered only by individual people. Powered by a real persons legs or pen or voice. Powered by that non-descript person in the crowd, under that pink hat. We need to see that person clearly, not just a blur. It takes that one person to push this progress up that hill. We need to focus on and to truly see that person clearly. That person in the middle of the crowd on that bridge in Alabama, that person 201,562 in that Million-Man March. Look closely, it took them to make progress happen. It didn’t happen by itself. We must realize that we are the breath of progress. It took every single, clear, distinct individual to add up to one million. It didn’t just happen by itself. It took real people. We can think someone else, just this blur, will take care of it. Look closely at that blur. See clearly that person. See their eyes. They look like mine, they look like yours. That’s who it takes for progress to happen. It takes me. It takes you. Not someone else, not just some blur.
You and I are that person under that pink hat, on that bridge or number 201,562 of a million. You and I are the pens and the voices of progress. “We, the People” are not just some blur. Progress truly may not happen without us. A blur will not take care of it for us. My legs, hands and mind, your legs, your hands or your mind, is what progress must have to take those steps forward, those steps uphill. It may not happen without me. It may not happen without you.
You truly need to know there is a never-ending satisfaction which no one can take from you when you go to a protest, or write a politician or media outlet, or discuss with friends, family, or co-workers. We need to experience that irreversible patriotic pride. We need to know that silence is worse than how badly I write. Our effort, never wasted, no matter how much ignored or poo-pooed.
I know it’s tough to be reasonable, to try to see all sides, to see how complicated and grey most issues really are. But in this world of oscillations, surrounded by the turmoil of “I don’t know”, I have found one Peace. You’ll see one constant amidst all my oscillations. A true tangible. We can touch it, we can all see it. A discussion I can never lose. No Republican can say I’m wrong. No anarchist can disagree. No Muslim, no Christian, no gun enthusiast or pacifist can say I’m wrong. I would win this case against the best lawyers in the world. It’s absolutely undeniable “…all men are created equal…” is America’s one Founding Principle. Like it or not, wish to follow it or not, believe it irrelevant or not. What you do with it, up to you. But the absolute, black and white, irrefutable fact is that it’s there. No one can deny it. There is not two sides to this. This is the first statement in our first document. Its importance in the birth of this New World set in stone. The very goal of America herself. Only one statement can be first and this is that one. America’s one Founding Principle, period.
Right there is solid bedrock. No question mark. No self-doubt. No grey area at all.
Please, I invite you to also find this Peace, a Peace without any oscillations.