Interesting times, again

 I never thought it would come down to this. Who would have ever dreamed that the economic fate of millions of low income and working Americans, the climate and--oh yeah--the future of democracy would come down to one vote in the US Senate. And that vote happens to be from a certain West Virginian at a time when West Virginia is at its political nadir (please God don't let us sink any lower!).

I guess it's proof that God, the gods, Lady Fortuna, and/or world history has a sense of humor.

In fairness, as the senator in question has pointed out, if an election or two somewhere else had gone just a little differently, we wouldn't be in this situation. And, believe it or not, the situation could be worse. A lot worse.

In the last year, it seems that many groups and individuals around the country have discovered West Virginia again. I was hoping those days would pass since the torrent of journalistic "Trump country safaris" tapered off. 

In my experience, and taking a long view of history, it's almost never a good thing when the larger world discovers West Virginia.

Apparently, some from out of state think this senator sprang into existence out of nowhere sometime around last February and have tried to inform us of that fact. Some have even suggested we might consider contacting the senator in question...like it never would have occurred to us and as if we had no knowledge or experience of this person. 

What I do know is that a lot of people here are working hard to get the best possible Build Back Better through and to do all we can to push for voting rights--and that no fight before or after will ever be as important as this one. Some are focused mostly on climate, others on voting, others on economic issues, and many care deeply about all the above.

As you can probably imagine, this kind of pressure raises lots of interesting questions and tensions about tactics and strategies. As in soft or hard, inside and/or outside, calling in versus calling out, how hard to push without crossing a line, what works and what backfires, and more. And the situation changes every day.

All this would be an interesting intellectual exercise if there wasn't so much at stake. 

Pass the chronos, please

I often think about how the New Testament uses two Greek words for time, kairos and chronos. Times of kairos can be described as critical, make-or-break, pivot points, hinges of history, times of decision and all that. Chronos is like the ordinary run of times when things are not so...interesting. 

It seems like this truly is a time of kairos for the nation and the planet with so much at stake, including ensuring the future of democracy; dealing with catastrophic climate change; fighting off authoritarianism; addressing gross inequalities and such, all in the middle of a pandemic. And things seem pretty close to unraveling all over the place.

And, just to prove that God, the gods, Lady Fortuna and/or world history have a sense of humor, people from West Virginia are going to have a disproportionate impact for good or ill. Will the right to vote be guaranteed or will the forces of racist voter suppression win? Will we "build back better" with a stronger and cleaner infrastructure and more just economy for all? Will we take what may be a last chance to deal with climate?

Which also means, what are the most effective things that we can do here and now to move things in a more positive or at least less bad direction? A lot of my friends are working on it. And we're all feeling it.

I keep thinking about those lines from Lord of the Rings where Frodo said "I wish it need not have happened in my time." 

To which Gandalf replies, "So do I...and so do all who live to see such times. But that is not for them to decide. All we have to decide is what to do with the time that is given us."

I wouldn't mind a good chunk of chronos right about now.

One of a kind

 I was saddened to learn of the death last Sunday of one of my heroes, the aptly named Robert “Bob” Moses, who passed at the age of 86.

I came of age after the heroic age of the Civil Rights Movement. Over 30 years ago, at the beginning of my career with the American Friends Service Committee, I read Taylor Branch’s masterful book Parting the Waters: American in the King Years. It was there that I learned of Moses' harrowing work on behalf of voting rights and his deep commitment to grassroots leadership.

Moses, who earned a doctorate in philosophy, and Dr. Martin Luther King had much in common while being polar opposites. Both were brilliant African-American civil rights leaders and tacticians

King was a public spokesperson who did well on the public stage--and thank God for that. Moses, on the other hand, avoided the limelight and often worked behind the scenes to promote voting rights and elevate grassroots leaders in the deep south, while enduring beatings, gunshots, threats and jails.

The philosopher Aristotle long ago argued that the truly brave person wasn’t incapable of feeling fear. Such people might be foolhardy or ignorant. A truly brave person does what the situation requires however fearful. I don’t know what Moses felt in the many times he put his body on the line for justice, often at the cost of physical brutality, but his courage never seemed to waver.

It's an added irony that he passed just as we're bracing for another assault on voting rights aimed and rolling back the gains of the past.

Moses’ aversion to star status seems to me to have embodied the teachings of Jesus in the Sermon on the Mount (Matthew 5-7), where Jesus taught that his followers should do their good deeds (prayer, fasting, charity) away from public display or scrutiny.

Moses left the US around 1966, eventually spending several years in Tanzania working as an educator. On his return to the US, he developed the Algebra Project, which aims to improve math skills and ultimately educational and occupation success for disadvantaged students, particularly those in the Black community.

I'm kind of jealous that my wife, Anna Megyesi, got the chance to meet Moses in the 1990s when she was working for the AFSC in western Massachusetts and invited him to speak at an annual celebration of Martin Luther King Day. He accepted, but declined to speak about his work in the deep south in the early 1960s, preferring to talk about his work in promoting math skills.

He was the real deal. After learning of his death, I kept thinking of a line from Bob Marley's song Exodus: "send us another brother Moses"...but I have the feeling they broke the mold when they made him.

Say it ain't so, Joe

 WV Senator Joe Manchin wrote an op-ed yesterday on his opposition to the HR 1/S 1 For the People Act, which was designed to protect and expand voting rights. No doubt that was good news to white nationalists, insurrectionists and their enablers and apologists, and vote suppressors--but, as this article shows, it was a slap in the face to Black West Virginians, who arguably provided his margin of victory in the last election, not to mention anyone who cares about democracy.

On a positive note, it was nice to see the United Mine Workers Union issue this statement today in favor of the proposed legislation. Union president Cecil Roberts said that  “Congress should be doing everything possible to not just maintain, but expand voting access and create freer and fairer elections. If only one party is interested in doing that, then so be it.”

I think somebody kicked a hornet's nest and I have a feeling this isn't over.