Skip to main content

Glee


Good morning. I’m here today to talk to you about glee. No, not this glee. And not the glee with which the reindeer shouted out to Rudolph. I’m here to address an accusation made by a prominent local Republican this week. His words came in response to an acknowledgement of the late Elijah Cummings after the vote on the articles of impeachment.

What is sad is that you are hiding your glee behind the death of a congressman.

There was accompanying pontification on how local Democrats’ demeanor was unseemly. They were clearly expressing delight when they should have been reflecting a somber mood. 

The delight is very telling. Sad.

I could not disagree more. 

Do not tell me that I should feel that the vote on articles of impeachment is “a sad day for our country.”  The sad day for our country was when the current office holder was installed in spite of losing the popular vote and through the machinations of a party so eager to win that they accepted help from groups whose aim is to break down and destroy our democratic process.

That was the sad day. Wednesday was a day of reckoning. Wednesday the nation fought back.

I’m going to share a photograph which has been making the rounds on social media lately. 


 Courtesy of the Gross family)


These women have just learned that they are being freed and will not be continuing on to Nazi death camps. Examine their facial expressions. Their emotions are understandably complex but their joy is clear. The unspeakable horrors they were facing have now been smashed by their liberation. It is not a sad day. No one will fault them for their delight.

Right now we have a president and an unwavering cadre of legislative supporters who separate parents and children, who place people in camps, who allow human beings to suffer and die alone without adequate medical care. He uses the powers of his office to gut laws that protect the environment, LGBTQ Rights, safe food handling. He takes food benefits from hungry families and children. He fosters an environment of hatred and intolerance against anyone who is different or who dares to oppose him. He pressures other nations to perform tasks solely for his personal benefit.

The day that the congress of the United States holds this President responsible for his actions against the nation is not a sad one. It is a triumph of the very process the founders laid out to protect the survival of our democracy. If this vote opens a door to stopping the pain that this administration is causing?

That would be a very happy day.

You’re darn right I’m gleeful. Who would not be if it meant that there might be a possibility that this horrific suffering might be ended? How could you not be joyful? We the People have the power to push back and censure tyrants and insist that our elected officials stand for something more than the worship of riches and the callous promotion of human suffering.

You can’t shame me. I’ll take your glee and raise it one. I’m proud.

*****











Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Teacher Gifts

Today is the last day of school before the Winter Break. It’s a good time to remember the far-reaching nature of our public school system. You may not have children. You may have sent your children to independent schools. It matters not. You will be impacted one way or another. Yesterday I read a long thread on Facebook about several waves of illness in the schools right now. There’s influenza A and norovirus, I believe. And of course there’s COVID. Apparently in some individual schools the rate of illness is high enough for school admin to notify parents.  When I was little the acceptable holiday gift for a teacher was one of those lovely floral handkerchief squares. (I don’t know what it was for male teachers. They were rare in my elementary years.) These days the range of teacher gifts is wider and I have fond memories of Target gift cards which I have written about before. I think it’s safe to say that giving one’s teacher Influenza, norovirus, or COVID is not the ideal holiday...
1 comment
Read more

F ³: We Are Not Entitled

  A college student went missing. His family and friends were distraught. The community was encouraged to be on the lookout and spread the word.  Days passed.  They must have been agonizing days for those who cared about the missing student. Thoughts that foul play had been involved cannot have been far from their thoughts.  Then, at last, the student was found. Alive. The news was shared with the public.  So. Much. Relief. A family had been reunited with their child. Even though we know that life is complicated, I think it is okay to accept this as a happy ending and leave it at that.  But the world of social media says no. For every expression of joy at the news came questions and even judgement. It became clear to me that some folks felt entitled to an explanation. They wanted the backstory. It’s as though they felt that, by enlisting the help of the public on social media, the authorities now owed them all the details. Television dramas often weave curr...
2 comments
Read more

Separate and Unequal

  Remember “Separate but equal”? Remember how that really meant that Black schools languished in  broken-down buildings without adequate heat or toilet facilities, with cast-off, ragged learning materials, underfunded and largely ignored? The Supreme Court struck that down in 1954. The evidence was clear that separate was not equal. Plessy v Ferguson had led to - - no, endorsed - - deeply unequal schooling and opportunities. We tend to think of Brown v Board as being purely about racial integration. It was not.  It was about the logical consequences of segregation. And they were not, not, not equal. The ruling in 1954 didn’t transform public education for non-whites into a land of milk and honey by any means. But it articulated some essential truths in a way that made including everyone a legal precedent which could be relied upon and built upon. It was better than what came before it but it rested upon unsteady ground. It did not necessarily change the hearts or minds ...
1 comment
Read more