The despair among Kossacks is palpable. I have seen so many diaries, and comments, by people who have lost faith (or have none) in President Obama, in the Democratic Party, and even in politics. The effect of Joe Lieberman on the Health Insurance bill before the Senate, and the evident powerlessness (or unwillingness to use such power as exists) to overcome his malice, has sent many of us over the edge. Many are sniping at other Kossacks; many are losing hope. Some may be abandoning Daily Kos; some may even be losing interest in progressive politics.
To which I say: the hour is dark. But you do not have the option of giving up. I repeat - that is simply not a choice available to you. Not if you wish to be an ethical person.
Do not be daunted by the enormity of the world's grief. Do justly, now. Love mercy, now. Walk humbly, now. You are not obligated to complete the work, but neither are you free to abandon it. --The Talmud
I know of some Kossacks for whom the Health Insurance debate is of great personal importance - people who are suffering right now, and who may even die due to Joe Lieberman and his ilk. For what it's worth, I dedicate this diary to them.
So you think we have problems?
Consider Abraham Lincoln during the Civil War. He faced the worst riots in the history of the United States protesting the draft - hundreds killed and millions in damage back when dollars were made of gold. He faced opposition from Northern politicians and Southern armies. He faced the possibility of British intervention on the side of the South. He did not give up, and as a result, the Union was preserved, slavery was abolished, and African Americans made a considerable step towards equality - a journey which continues.
So you think we have problems?
Consider Winston Churchill shortly after he became Prime Minister. The British Expeditionary Force had been driven into a small pocket around Dunkirk, and it appeared that the advancing Germans were about to destroy the entire force - representing almost all the best officers and men in the Army. The Germans had conquered, or were allied with, essentially all of Europe. He did not give up; the near-miraculous evacuation of Dunkirk saved much of the Army; and, eventually, the Allies defeated the Germans, saving Europe and the world from the Nazis.
So you think we have problems?
Consider Martin Luther King in the Birmingham jail. The FBI was tracking him, he received death threats routinely, and the clergy of Birmingham, Christian and Jewish alike, had published an open letter criticizing his methods, and his presence in Birmingham. He did not give up, and his efforts contributed mightily towards the journey of African Americans towards equality.
So you think we have problems?
How do you think Teddy Kennedy felt towards the end of his life? The one issue he cared about most, health care, was moving forward for the first time in decades - and he was dying, and he must have known it. And he must have known the obstacles in the way. He did not give up, and worked towards his goals to the end.
Our problems are no excuse for giving up!
Progress is never easy. The status quo always has powerful forces interested in maintaining it. Progress is therefore almost always incremental.
So, you've lost faith in President Obama? He's only a politician, after all - the causes we care about are greater than any one man. Fight on!
You've lost faith in the Democratic Party? I don't blame you. There are other ways to work than through a party. Fight on!
You despair because the wealthy have so much power? It is ever thus. Fight on!
Every time a GLBT person comes out to friends and family and coworkers the fight goes on.
Every time someone is rebuked for racial or religious intolerance the fight goes on.
Every time someone tries to persuade others to oppose the corporatist, to work for economic justice, to support unions - the fight goes on.
I will let the men cited above encourage you with greater eloquence than I will ever possess. In moments where "reality" said they should despair, they instead said things like these.
It is rather for us to be here dedicated to the great task remaining before us -- that from these honored dead we take increased devotion to that cause for which they gave the last full measure of devotion ... and that government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth
Even though large tracts of Europe and many old and famous States have fallen or may fall into the grip of the Gestapo and all the odious apparatus of Nazi rule, we shall not flag or fail.
We shall go on to the end, we shall fight in France,
we shall fight on the seas and oceans,
we shall fight with growing confidence and growing strength in the air, we shall defend our Island, whatever the cost may be,
we shall fight on the beaches,
we shall fight on the landing grounds,
we shall fight in the fields and in the streets,
we shall fight in the hills;
we shall never surrender, ...
Such an attitude stems from a tragic misconception of time, from the strangely irrational notion that there is something in the very flow of time that will inevitably cure all ills. Actually, time itself is neutral; it can be used either destructively or constructively. More and more I feel that the people of ill will have used time much more effectively than have the people of good will. We will have to repent in this generation not merely for the hateful words and actions of the bad people but for the appalling silence of the good people. Human progress never rolls in on wheels of inevitability; it comes through the tireless efforts of men willing to be co workers with God, and without this hard work, time itself becomes an ally of the forces of social stagnation. We must use time creatively, in the knowledge that the time is always ripe to do right. Now is the time to make real the promise of democracy and transform our pending national elegy into a creative psalm of brotherhood. Now is the time to lift our national policy from the quicksand of racial injustice to the solid rock of human dignity.
The Work Goes On, The Cause Endures, The Hope Still Lives, and the Dream Shall Never Die