Today was a great day.
It started off like any other Sunday, a slow wakeup, a watch of the political talk shows and then off to our newly found church. It was here that my whole world was rocked...
I am a big believer in keeping church and state separate but today our pastor blended the two in a way I have never seen done before. It was different, it was moving, and it inspired the whole congregation to action.
Our church is the Cathedral of Hope, and the Senior pastor is an amazing woman by the name of Reverend Dr. Jo Hudson. We were invited by a friend of ours to attend back on Earth Day when my opponent received the "Earth Killer" award for his blatant disregard of the environment.
Since then we have been hooked and after reading some of her words, I am sure you will be too.
After church, our family attended a picnic where local, state, and Congressional Democratic candidates got time in front of the very charged up crowd. The club that sponsored the picnic raised over 900 pounds of food for the Tarrant County Food Bank, in addition to putting on a first class event for all. And as I prepared yesterday for my speech, I struggled with what I would say to the audience. After sitting through the sermon, I knew where I would go with it - it was perfect!
Today's sermon was called "Resurrecting Peace" and it was a riveting call to action for those of us struggling with the current administration's disdain for human rights, failed foreign policy, and the corruption that is running rampant in Washington. But most of all - it was a call for peace. This is not the entire sermon, but the parts that changed my life.
I am a great fan of the 4th of July. I love singing the patriotic songs and I am a sucker for fireworks. I think most of us are fans of our country largely because of the promise contained in our beginnings: The Declaration of Independence and The Constitution of the United States of America and its By-Laws. Maybe we love our country like we love our sports teams, because we live here, or maybe we love our country because it was born in a struggle for human rights.
There are times today when I feel like I am living in a foreign land. I don't recognize my country that has changed the rules of military engagement from being a country that only responds when attacked to being a country that will attack another country on the suspicion of what they might do: forget diplomacy.
I don't recognize my country that has espoused the view that we are "the land of the free and the home of the brave," when our nation's leaders want to deny the civil rights of an entire group of people by limiting who can and cannot make vows of lasting love before their Creator and be recognized as a couple before the state.
I don't recognize my country when the elected Congress of our nation wants to take away the freedom of speech, a freedom that has been the first and the hallmark of our civilized nation, a freedom on which our country was founded, the freedom to dissent.
And explain to me why our Congress is debating a flag-burning amendment and a marriage amendment anyway when so many in our country don't have a good education, good health care, and a job that can pay the bills. Where is the pursuit of happiness in that?
I don't recognize my country when it seems that there is a commitment to pay corporate America executives and share-holders 100 times, 1,000 times more the salary of their lowest paid employee.
And then when one, like Warren Buffet, who has that kind of wealth, determines to give it away to help others, they are questioned and criticized and the stock of their company goes down just because they are generous.
Some mornings, as I read the paper and listen to the news, I wonder what country I am living in. Do you?
You see, I have this sense that our country is losing our way, we are capitulating to those who believe that war is a way to peace, that fear is the way to change the world, that giving money to the richest people and letting it trickle down to the poor is the way to run the economy, that keeping those who look different and speak different languages our of our country is the best way to keep us safe, that listening in on our conversations and looking at our bank accounts and what books we check out and what websites we visit is the way to prevent terrorism.
Moreover, that is not what discourages me most. What discourages me most is that there are so many people who agree with me and yet are silent.
So I've been contemplating why it is that we are so silent. Why is it that we have been unable to bring people to the polls to vote for liberation, inclusion, compassion and hope? Why is it that we cannot bring people to the streets to march for our environment that is being destroyed, our civil rights that have been stripped from us, a war that is sending our best young men and women home in body bags?
This is about recognizing that there is a world out there that needs to hear your voice speak of peace, there is a person out there who needs to hear your voice welcome them, that they might join us in resurrecting God's peace in the world. No sermon can do that. Only you can do that. This isn't about politics. It is about Jesus, who loved extravagantly and in so loving gave us life. Amen.
She is right; it is not about politics, it is about peace. Peace with ourselves, peace with others, peace as Americans, and peace as a world leader. We must be strong in our dissent and make our voices heard near and far. We must rebuild that peace starting today. We must be at peace with the 2000 and 2004 elections and move forward. We cannot let those horrible days in November define us anymore as a people; we can no longer afford to be complacent.
Complacency is deadly because it means that we don't go to the polls, we don't speak for peace, we don't work for justice and the laws of our land are systematically changed to protect the wealthy and the powerful when it is those laws that were conceived to protect the poor and the outcast and the dissenter.
In our dissent against the current administration's policies we have to remember what our dissent is all about. Our dissent is because of our struggle to be "One Nation Under God", to own those "certain unalienable rights" outlined by the Declaration of Independence, and it is about forming a "more perfect union", establishing "justice", insuring "domestic tranquility", providing for the "common defense", promoting the "general welfare", and "securing the blessings of liberty to ourselves and our posterity" as mandated by our Constitution.
Don't fear dissent, embrace it.
We must embrace this peaceful dissent and give birth to a new Nation. This year we must be united like never before. This year it needs to be personal. We have to speak to our neighbors, call our friends, charge our relatives with creating this new Nation - one street, one community, and one state at a time.
We must speak as one.
We must run as one.
We must win as one.
This is not the year to be complacent or fearful; it is the year to take back America and give it back to the great people who have sacrificed their lives, their liberty, and their hopes, so that future generations can truly live in peace.