This is a hard time for people who care about universal human rights. After yesterday’s election some of you may need a time to rest and even to grieve.
I won’t list the human and environmental damage that will occur in a second Trump administration. You know the list as well as I. So, if you need to, give yourself the gift of rest and healing. But at some point you will probably ask, “Where do we go from here?”
This morning I am remembering Arthur Ashe’s suggestion: “Start where you are. Use what you have. Do what you can.” This may be good advice for some of us. Let’s break it down:
“START WHERE YOU ARE”
If we want to find the leverage to change the world it is essential to stop pretending the world is what we want it to be. Optimism is mere delusion if it distorts our view of what is actually happening. Where we find ourselves at a given time in history is the only starting point to learn and teach life’s most important lessons.
It is a waste of the precious gift of life to mope away our days because our political conditions are unfair. In fact, unfair political conditions can be the perfect place to put our highest values into practice. While it is exhausting to think of spending our lives fighting evil, it is inspiring to think of how we might love our human family enough to champion their rights even when their rights are ignored by a powerful majority population.
“USE WHAT YOU HAVE”
At one point in my life I realized that the heroes and she-roes I most idolized were all born into worse times than I have ever known. The unfairness of their time was the backdrop allowing them to point to a better way. I realized if all these noble souls had chosen love over despair, I really had no excuse to sit on my hands. In fact, I learned that my own despair was usually the part of my life I was holding back from the struggle for the common good.
“DO WHAT YOU CAN”
History is a never ending story. There is no finish line in the race for human rights. Our purpose is not to “win” rights once and for all within our own time. Our calling is to be a faithful part of the LONG unfolding story of humankind in victory AND defeat.
It is a life well lived to learn and teach the love that grows into justice for all. In fact, the bleaker our conditions, the more the light of love will shine. Throughout history, human rights have been won by noble souls willing to lose political battles to teach the deeper principles that would include us all.
I also remember the words of Ruth Bader Ginsberg this morning:
“(Judicial) dissents speak to a future age. It’s not simply to say, ‘My colleagues are wrong and I would do it this way.’ But the greatest dissents do become court opinions and gradually over time their views become the dominant view. So that’s the dissenter’s hope: that they are writing not for today but for tomorrow.”
So take the time you need to rest and heal, but then remember that your human family needs you. If you choose to say “yes” to that challenge it will lead you to a life of nobility whether you win or lose politically in your own time.