America received an electric shock with its presidential election outcome. Perhaps we needed this to jolt us into reality and truly assess where we are on the democracy spectrum and with our role in the world.
The campaign season of America’s presidential election contained the rhetoric of two revolutions and two political parties that ignored the peoples’ voices.
Bernie Sanders brought thousands together in his cries for economic and social justice. He even called his movement a revolution. Donald Trump struck a chord right in the America’s heartland with his make America great again … stop the changes … build walls, and don’t let new folks or ideas in.
The Republicans didn’t know what to make of Trump and tried hard to amend his rhetoric. The Democrats chose not to totally embrace the vision of Bernie. Both parties rejected the change these men represented and failed to learn from them.
These two revolutions stand on opposite sides of the political spectrum but together they show the vast discontent within America and with our current politics. Neither revolution talked much about America’s superpower role in the world nor the world as a whole.
This home, our planet, has become considerably smaller mainly due to technology: faster, easier transportation and instant communication including sound, print and pictures. We hear and see immediately what is happening on the other side of the globe. It’s as though the world has become a huge TV screen and there are few places to hide.
The United States can no longer quietly be trying to assemble and manage its empire without the rest of the world knowing. Inflicting pain, causing violence, creating refugees is now witnessed by everyone. It is time to choose another path so we all can survive. The only way the United States can remain a significant presence, is to lead the way in peace and in the environmental revolution.
To do this, we need to address and care for our wounds at home. Do we want freedom for all? Do we champion equality across the spectrum? Are we equipped to welcome equal choice for those of a different color, class, gender representation, ethnicity? Can we allow ourselves to not fear for our equality as “others” mix into our community? Can we have the courage to accept differences and understand that those differences will make us stronger?
We need to take many of the dollars we spend on the military to supposedly make us secure and spend them on our sisters and brothers at home to truly make us all secure.
We have heard often the words of Martin Luther King Jr., “The arc of the moral universe is long, but it bends towards justice.” Think on these words a minute: arc, not a straight line; moral, what is nourishing and good for all; universe, not just America, but the world, the total globe; but (not and), implies it could be otherwise but it will not be otherwise; bends, gradual, not a straight line, gently, eventually; justice, fair, positive, sustaining, life-affirming. We must hold these words close as we find our way forward in these conflicting and troubled days and years.
Every time we hold justice up and affirm it, we build community, strength and resilience. We need to do this in everyday, small, personal matters, larger community issues, statewide referendums and national campaigns for moral justice. This election demonstrated outrage for the lack of justice for all and fear that the status quo of yesteryear was diminishing. It is our job to connect the outrage on one side and the fear on the other into a united movement forward for all.
We can do this by listening closely, engaging mindfully, acting purposefully to support, uplift, create that which spreads justice, truth, life for the greater good. The health of the planet and our human world depends on this.
Susan Lantz, of Northampton, is an activist on issues related to nuclear power and climate change.