The Arc of History ...

A quote from the late Dr. Martin Luther King has become much popularized again in the last twenty-four hours when he said:  “The Arc of the Moral Universe Is Long, but It Bends Toward Justice.”  It is a quote I have heard many times on my sixty five year arc so I feel at least chronologically qualified to make a few comments.  My comments, no doubt, will be met by those that will praise the thoughts and a few that will probably raise the racist moniker yet again but I wish to put my heart in 2013 to words. 

 

In the last two days, forty eight hours, two landmark decisions by the United State Supreme Court have thrown on Scriptural doctrine on the definition of marriage that dates back  a few thousand years and the Voting Rights Act is overturned eradicating a much heralded and painful era in which I lived my teen age years in, yes, Alabama.  Two major democratically and theomatically doctrined bodies of law cast aside by basically five men in two days.  There just seems to be something wrong with that as I have pondered and sought to gain a degree of understanding of these forces.

 

One of the things I came to realize in graduate school years ago was really eyeopening for me as to the learning I thought I knew from civics class in high school.  There are three arms of our Government: Congress that makes laws, Executive that manages the organizations these laws create and a Judicial that gives the citizens the Constitutional means to right wrongs by other citizens. That was hard to put into my brain at an early age but I finally figured it out. But then a strange thing happened one day when I realized the Congress is not the only branch of Government that can make laws for law is created when the Supreme Court rules on a Congressionally legislated law.  I found that most interesting. In light of the last forty eight years I find it downright frightening.

 

Our Founders, as I understand their mindset, was to use the prism of Checks-and-Balances as the three arms of Government were put into structure and operationalized.  So here we are since 1776, still a relatively young nation by the way, struggling with: “The Arc of the Moral Universe Is Long, but It Bends Toward Justice” --- Martin Luther King Jr. 

 

Some of us remember well the Freedom Riders. the Selma Marches, marches in our hometowns, the dogs in Birmingham. Some of us remember Leroy Gray, a young 17 year old black man forced to attend my high school in the graduating class of 1966 so our 265 graduating group would have one black; 264 plus 1.  It seemed sto wrong then and I grew to really like Leroy and hurt to see his plight. I could not begin to imagine what he felt each day in getting up knowing what faced him as his sun rose in a sea of angry white kids.  He passed away several years ago as I understand but I never had the chance to sit with him years after that chaotic year for ALL OF US to hear his thoughts on the world of the late 1960s.

 

Some of us remember clearly the White and Colored bathrooms and water fountains, back entrances to doctor and dentist offices that I, as a white man, never thought twice about for that was our culture. It sickens me when I think of that clouded, dulled time of my life as I view it through the rear view mirror of my life.  I can see it oh so clearly even now! 

 

So well do I remember playing basketball in high school against the first black high school player in Alabama, Danny Treadwell.  I can see now him playing in the State basketball tournament as the first black player and being so rattled that the first foul shot he took sailed completely over the backboard. My heart ached for him; but then I had to guard him the next day. I knew that next day that the world of white basketball in Alabama had changed forever. I was right!

 

It is not my intention to create a litany of Civil Right memories but until yesterday with the throwing out of the Voting Rights Act did I actually register on the term "Civil RIGHTS" and even more so, "Voting RIGHTS."  I well remember wrestling with the events of my decade of the 1960s most of which none of us really understood. Oh yes, we were seeing our friends go off to somewhere called Viet Nam and some not coming home and those that came home were not those that left; they had changed.

 

This week I have found myself deeply troubled by the "Arc of the Moral Universe" King spoke about for it is my assessment, today, that that Arc has somehow fallen into the ocean of rationalization.  See, I learned from a great mentor that what sets Man apart from the animals is that Man can rationalize and animals cannot. It is psychologically called Cognitive Dissonance Reduction. I call it rationalizing away any semblance of absolutes.

 

One of my guiding principles is that "if you do not stand for something you will fall for anything."  My pastor, rightly, holds his Bible up during sermons to exclaim that the Bible is the only absolute today. I say, AMEN. In saying AMEN I am saying that the principles and teachings create a fundamental body of knowledge within which Man must and can exist with each other. When those absolutes are rationalized away, then we will fall for the next snake oil product being peddled.

 

THAT, simply, is my greatest, heart felt concern for my children and my grandchildren and their children's children.  I knew in 1965 that what the black people faced was horrific but like most other white kids chose to ignore or it was just too big to attack. So we rationalized the wrong into a morphed sense of just not worry about it.  The marriage debacle of this week, for me wreaks of the same odor of rationalization.  Many have heard me say and read my words that Right is Right and Wrong is Wrong and no amount of Wrong will ever, EVER, make a Wrong, Right.

 

This week I feel we have taken a multi-generational step backwards that I will not see regained in my lifetime if ever. When I realize that there are more years behind me that there are in front of me, then the gravity of all of this takes on new meaning.  As a Christian man, I feel a sense of gut level concern about the tomorrows. But I also follow my Arc of History and believe by faith that my Heavenly Father is fully aware of all of this and therefore all of this is part of a grand plan only He can execute. I say, YESSSSSSSSSSSSS for that takes much of the angst from my intestines in realizing that all I have to do is stand on His principles He gave us clearly in the Bible and He will take care of the rest. It really is that simple. Thank you, God!

 

It is my hope that my words penned from my heart will find a place of solace for some that are agitated by the historical rumblings of our current times.  The IRS debacle was, for me, a metaphor for our government and its leadership in 2013.  Hands off, arrogant, pompous, corrupt and aimless with no accountability.  How could any organization have order with those tenets not nailed into place I ask?

 

We the People must focus on the principles given clearly in the Bible. I will take my stand on that absolute and that stand will be immovable.