Image: Barn Images via Unsplash
I am in politics because of the conflict between good and evil, and I believe that in the end good will triumph.
English lawyer, politician and Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, Margaret Thatcher, was born on this day in 1925 (died 2013).
Darn it, Maggie, I was doing so well trying not to be involved.
That’s why I got involved in politics in the first place, because I thought there was a right way for things to be done, and I thought I could make a difference.
I still do believe there’s a right way for things to be done. I’m just not sure that in all my years of politics and government work I was really making a difference.
That sounds more defeatist than I mean it to be. I do know we accomplished some good things.
But then I became disillusioned with the whole process. I’ve written about that and I don’t, currently, care to do so again other than to say that I got tired of defending the indefensible just for the sake of the party.
Sounds awfully familiar doesn’t it?
I digress. But just a little bit.
It’s been hard this election cycle to not comment more than I have. I have a strong distaste for both major party candidates. I think I’ve made that clear.
But it’s hard, sometimes painfully hard, to stay out of the commentary.
I’m not jumping back into the fray. Ironically I did so some 20ish years ago over the whole Elian Gonzales episode. Another story. Another time.
I’m feeling the tug to comment again. I don’t think that the tug is quite the same as being a partisan hack.
A couple of things over the weekend happened to make me think that I need to, respectfully, provide some commentary or perhaps some action.
That respectful part is hard for a professional smart ass.
But Saturday I came home early from work at the park since we closed at 3:00 because of the rain. I sat down to write but needed a bit of vegetating.
I scrolled through the HBO app and came up on the movie Amazing Grace that I’d not seen in quite some time. It tells the story of William Wilberforce and the fight to abolish the slave trade in Great Britain. Wilberforce was friends with former slave ship captain John Newton, who penned the words to the hymn Amazing Grace.
When pointing out the absolute horrors of the slave trade Wilberforce said:
“You may choose to look the other way but you can never say again that you did not know.”
Well, crap.
I have contented myself for a while with believing that the work I do in the arts is making the world a better place, and I believe it is.
Still, there’s a lot of hurt out there. A lot of injustice. I can’t ignore that.
It may not mean jumping back into politics. In fact, I hope it doesn’t.
But maybe there’s another place…right now after last week’s storm…Haiti comes to mind.
I don’t know if that means going to Haiti, or just finding a way to financially help those that are going. I did go to New Orleans twice for reconstruction projects after Katrina hit.
I don’t really know what it means. It just means…something…
So, thanks, Maggie, and Wilber for making me feel like a slacker.