Some thoughts on civic engagement

Over the last 2 weeks the news and just about everyone I know have been fixated on politics. There is more than enough material in recent events to examine. The number of actions that are unprecedented at a minimum and potentially unethical and illegal is overwhelming. Everyone has something to say about it and those discussions are rarely positive; either you are both upset about the same things and both get more upset and gloomy or you are upset about different things and leave the conversation confused and gloomy. It can be tempting to disengage and believe that "the arc of moral history is long but it bends towards justice" (Martin Luther King Jr) so eventually it will all work itself out. While this is true and certainly in the long run everything will be right, my brief stint in the high school politics class suggests that part of our civic duty is to take and interest in  the welfare of our country, engage in the democratic system, and take responsibility for the outcomes of our engagement or lack thereof. 

I have grown up my whole life imaging myself as an Eowyn, Abigail Adams, Corrie Ten Boom, or Rosa Parks. It is easy from the comfort of a book in a large fluffy chair to join fictional and historic resistance movements. But if one cannot muster the courage or interest to participate in wholly legal and fairly convenient avenues of democratically influencing issues one cares deeply about, the only honest evaluation is that one would probably not have been part of La Resistance, the Civil Rights Movement, or tearing down the Berlin Wall. One thing I learned my German Cinema class was that most people who were part of something important (the Reformation, WWII resistance, East Germany resistance, reunification, etc.) didn't have a master plan, they just responded to the situations that presented themselves and started small. 

I attended the Women's March in Atlanta two weeks ago. I took some of my friends from work, we were a very few of the estimated 60,000 people who protested in Atlanta and 3 million who protested world wide. It was a new experience but overall positive. There were many people with many different views who all put aside their individual differences to work together for a common goal. I was surprised how many different ages were represented. In history class all the pictures of the Civil Rights and Vietnam protests just showed college age people. There were families with baby back packs and strollers, elementary school children, old people (my friends and I helped a lady in her 70's climb a fence, I think we were all much more concerned about her climbing the fence than she was). I'm helping, on a small level, to organize the Atlanta branch of the demonstration in support of science in April. Large demonstrations are impressive, they help convey a sense of community and the extent of discontent. It is important to note that demonstrations and protests are, to use a developmental biology phrase, neither necessary nor sufficient for change. It is far more important to consistently do the easy things: have thoughtful, respectful conversations with people around us to understand what they think and what is important to them, critically approach each issue (not everything is automatically bad), reach out in friendship and support to those who feel they have been unjustly targeted, call and visit our elected representatives to help them understand the views and concerns of their constituency, participate in town hall and like events to ensure our voice is heard. Engaging only in meaningless ways is about as helpful as doing nothing. 

Some of the things I have learned from going to the meetings about organizing the Science March are that most people don't know what they are doing, they are just responding in the best ways they know how to the challenges that have presented themselves, kind of like getting daunting callings at church. I have a greater appreciation for the people who were involved in the impressive historic movements: there is a lot of logistics and sustained coordination necessary for these things. And then I think about trying to do it without computers or phones and not knowing who to trust, I'm impressed that any of it got done at all. 

The final thought: I really like 2 Timothy 1:7 "For God hath not given us the spirit of fear; but of power, and of love, and of a sound mind." Being afraid of the future is not productive and it is not the heritage God has given us. Rather, he has empowered us to effect change for the better in the world through our love and sound reasoning. We are obligated to work to improve the world and encouraged by the certainty that in the long run all will be right.