“Be a voice, not an echo.” These six words are a gentle reminder of my work each morning. Today they seem more mockery than inspiration as I decide which one I’ll be. My voice is right where it has always been, but my mighty pen, the voice I ordinarily shout with—the one that’s “mightier than the sword” has been in a strange and quiet place.
I’ve mulled and discussed every hot-button question to death. I’ve fretted about what to say and to whom. I’ve worried that if I say what I’m thinking, I could wreak havoc or bring harm to me and my family. I’ve toyed with and debated the current state of our nation until my echoes are eating my insides like an uncontained California wildfire.
I have no perfect or insightful answers, but I can’t believe I’m the only one with these questions: Will civil, respectful, and constructive dialogue be possible again in congressional hearings and everyday conversations around the public square? Is this even still important? Can we have/make a “great” country if we can’t complain about the government without being fired, harassed, or maligned? Can we go to our favorite places without fear of being shot or massacred? When immigrants came to the United States generations ago, they were seeking “opportunity” to build a better life for their families and those yet unborn. Has that dream changed? If someone is willing to risk life and limb, and work in the dirtiest and worse jobs to make a better life, why can’t we create a safe, fair, and effective path to citizenship? Why would we round up people like stray cattle and ship them somewhere they have never been? When we see the hollow-eyed parents holding their lifeless babies and digging through the ruins of their war-torn homes, it is a powerful reminder that War-whether in a department name or actual battle– is a no-win proposition—NOBODY wins. Whether the wars and conflicts end tomorrow or a year from now, how many skeletal bodies must we see before we decide the pictures and images aren’t fake news?
Are the protections, structures, and rights we expect and depend on—a free press not ruled by two or three media conglomerates, federal funding and expert oversight for vaccines, scientific and medical research, streets without armed troops and tanks, safe schools and campuses, museums, and other cultural spaces–a distant memory?
I visited the African American History Museum a few years ago and had a meltdown at the Emmitt Till exhibit. A staffer quickly appeared and said my reaction was common at this spot. I was born the year Till died and I’d seen pictures and read how his mother insisted the casket be open so the world could see the horror hate generates.
My friends, there is no positive way to tell that story or about the Holocaust, the Middle Passage, Japanese internment, the Great Depression, or a million other historical events. Museums don’t scour the worse stories to display– they offer an opportunity to learn and be better informed. Do politics and politicians get a say in what we see and feel? There are positive stories we can tell without lying about our troubled and checkered past.
Will our three branches of government be separate and equal as they were intended or will we watch re-election threats and district wrangling blend them into a silent, sad bowl of cold broth? Is putting party before the people the sum of what we’ve become?
As weekly protests in the streets are met by troops and police officers, (who are also people we know and love) our communities struggle under the ravages of crime, gerrymandering, fear, extreme weather, climate change, poverty, homelessness, and government overreach. Can/will we do more to rebuild civility and trust in our government and neighborhoods? In ourselves?
Will we help President Trump be the people’s president -–all of us, red, blue, rainbow, and everybody in between–so America can thrive without the hatred, trash talking, and finger pointing?
I still don’t have answers but my questions powerfully reminded me that the only way evil triumphs is when good people keep quiet. Today my pen and I will roar!
From Edward Bulwer-Lytton’s 1839 play Cardinal Richelieu suggests words and ideas have greater power than violence and war: “Beneath the rule of men entirely great, the pen is mightier than the sword.”
“The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing,” attributed to Edmund Burke
Cynthia A. Bond Hopson, Ph.D., lives in Cordova, TN. She is a higher ed executive, author, and wisdom source.
