Resistance
The resistance is struggling. I can tell, by the whispered conversation in the hallway; by the loud yawn from the staff, waiting to close an empty room. It’s faltering: what started out with a vengeance at the beginning of the Trump Administration has slowed. To be truthful, it is low on fuel, almost adrift in a terrifying sea of authoritarianism. What led to this failure?
In part, it is fear. Not the “fear itself”, Franklin Roosevelt kind of fear, but real fear, practical fear. What will happen to my job, my family, my life? If I am a “resistor”, will the secret police, dressed in camo and masks, come to my home? The black helicopters that the crazies on the “other side” always feared, are now theirs. The “inmates are in charge of the asylum”. Ask those poor folks in Chicago, with masked agents fast roping onto their roof. Will my neighbors, just as strong in the belief of the sacredness of their cause, turn on me?
Sunshine Patriots
In February it seemed like a reasonable risk, a sacrifice that American citizens were obligated to make. Thomas Paine, the Conscience of the American Revolution, said it this way.
“THESE are the times that try men’s souls. The summer soldier and the sunshine patriot will, in this crisis, shrink from the service of their country; but he that stands by it now, deserves the love and thanks of man and woman.”
It always sounded so compelling. But now we know what the “summer soldier, the sunshine patriot” was thinking. The alternate path, shrinking from the crisis and hiding from the obligation, looks so easy, so safe. People are threatened. They lost their jobs, moved their homes, were forced to hide. Some have even died. It’s real, now. It’s easy to “shrink”, to “stay small” and hope the storm will pass over. Let someone else be the one that stands.
Came for Me
First they came for the Communists.
And I did not speak out, Because I was not a Communist.
Then they came for the Socialists.
And I did not speak out, Because I was not a Socialist.
Then they came for the trade unionists.
And I did not speak out, Because I was not a trade unionist.
Then they came for the Jews.
And I did not speak out, Because I was not a Jew.
Then they came for me.
And there was no one left To speak out for me.
German Pastor Martin Neimöller wrote this famous poem, “First They Came”. It spoke of the inevitable outcome of authoritarian rule, spreading from “easy” targets to everyone. Even as a Lutheran Pastor and Nazi sympathizer before World War II, Neimöller himself ended up in a Nazi concentration camp. He did not “shrink” enough, and the whirlwind finally took him in its grasp.
And that’s the point. Ultimately, we will all get swept up by the “secret police”. First they came for the migrants, and I wasn’t a migrant so I didn’t speak out. It isn’t far-fetched at all to see that, in the end, they will come for me.
Fatigue
Thomas Paine again:
“Whatever is my right as a man is also the right of another; and it becomes my duty to guarantee as well as to possess. Those who expect to reap the blessings of freedom, must, like men, undergo the fatigues of supporting it.”
Fear and fatigue go hand in hand. It was easy to stand up in April, fresh from defeat and hoping to turn the tide. Now it’s October, and the drip-drip-drip of authoritarian action has worn us down. Some are choosing to “go small”.
No Choice
The point: we really don’t have that choice. We must resist, now. We must fight this fight now, or we will certainly have to fight it later when the authoritarian forces gain even more power. General Douglas MacArthur is not even on my top ten list of “favorite” military leaders. He was a General/Politician, a bad mix of power and ego. But, like most politicians, he had a great speech writer. And when he came back to the Philippines to fight the Japanese conquerors, he said, “I Have Returned”. And he called on the Filipino people to join him in his quest:
“…For your homes and hearths, strike! For future generations of your sons and daughters, strike! In the name of your sacred dead, strike! Let no heart be faint. Let every arm be steeled.”
So we must be “steeled” now. And, before my “friends on the other side” scream out, I’m not calling for violence or assassination. I am calling for Dr. King’s resistance, non-violent protest to challenge authoritarian inequity. There still is a chance to peacefully resist, to change the course of America back to one that “bends toward justice”. But, we need to strike now, to speak out for the least of us, because if we do not, as Pastor Neimöller found out, they will come for the “most” of us.
