Progressive angst, irritation and ultimate victory…

When I was a very young man it was still shocking to the general population to see interracial couples, the civil rights amendment was shiny new and almost all homosexuals were deep in the closet.

Almost my whole life I have known that it wasn’t cool to treat people differently based on the color of their skin. People who love each other should be allowed to love each other even if they came from divergent racial backgrounds.

Almost my whole life I recognized that individual qualifications were exactly that, individual! Skills, knowledge and talent were a factor of luck and desire and had no connection to race other than access. I knew that it was wrong to deprive anyone the access and opportunity of fully realizing potential.

From very early on I recognized that homosexuality wasn’t about a perversion it was about self and identity. People say “be true to yourself” yet shrink when that truth is at odds with what their religion says about human behavior. I knew that that these humans were just as American, honorable, fragile, human, valuable and necessary as any other in our union and that perfection of that union would never be complete until they enjoyed the same rights, freedoms and respect that every other member of this society should enjoy.

The point is that enormous progress has been made in all these issues, and though it has been frustratingly slow and ridiculously uneven, (particularly from the standpoint of KNOWING what the right thing was), progress has been made. We always knew that eventually a majority of people would come to the same conclusion but that didn’t make the struggle any less difficult or painful.

So now we stand on the edge of the most recent battle looking at the carnage and we ask, (logically, cause that IS what progressives do), what now?

What now?

You don’t stop fighting for the things that you know are right just because you didn’t win the argument

You don’t stop fighting for the things that you know are right just because someone else convinced enough people that we were just not ready for that truth

You don’t stop fighting for the things that you know are right just because someone bet the American people would vote emotionally and not logically, and won that bet.

You don’t stop fighting for the things you know are right until enough people acknowledge that it IS right and you can take up the cause further down the road to progress.

They beat us back this time. They beat us back with hate. They beat us back with fear. Most of all they beat us back with a relentless assault on the truth, a media enhanced, fact optional, trigger phrase, dog whistle assault on the truth. Eventually we will win, we know it, they do NOT. They have not the vision, they have not the imagination, they have not the facility to escape their fear to recognize the awesome potential of human beings…
Truth will eventually prevail… The earth is not flat, it is also not the center of the universe, Galileo would have had to lived almost four hundred years to experience an acknowledgment of that with respect to the Church.  Hopefully we won’t have to wait so long…
I’d like to leave you with a thought from The Talking Heads…

Facts are simple and facts are straight
Facts are lazy and facts are late
Facts all come with points of view
Facts don’t do what I want them to
Facts just twist the truth around
Facts are living turned inside out
Facts are getting the best of them
I’m still waiting, I’m still waiting, I’m still waiting, I’m still waiting
I’m still waiting, I’m still waiting, I’m still waiting, I’m still waiting
I’m still waiting, I’m still waiting, I’m still waiting, I’m still waiting
I’m still waiting, I’m still waiting

It is not enough to be right… we still have to struggle to MAKE IT RIGHT!

We still fight because it is our calling, our curse and our quest (Monty Python reference deliberately avoided…)

I’m not dead yet! (damn!)