DO WE FULLY UNDERSTAND WHAT WE FIGHT FOR AND AGAINST?

I’ve seen a figure that cheers me. 76% of us want to defend democracy.
Well and good, sez I. But then a question follows hard on the heels: how many of us realize the scope of what we fight for and fight against? Absolutely, we need to act locally. We need to run for our local school boards and, once there, stand stalwartly for the teaching of truth. Historical truth and scientific truth. Both change from time to time as new discoveries are made and new perspectives take shape.
We need to have our young people go with the ascertainable facts and question everything else. We need to ground them in a history that is productive (as are nearly all histories) of both pride and shame. We need to give our young people the tools to make sure the shameful parts of our history are not repeated and are redeemed by giving the history of which we deserve to be proud new life.
But we also need to grasp the urgency of this moment and the planetary scope of this war — yes, war — in which we are currently engaged. We need to do all we can to ensure this November sees a Democratic tsunami on all — yes, all — electoral levels! If anything else happens, democracy’s future in our country becomes questionable at best and at worst it’ll be dead, maybe for the rest of the lives of many of us.
We fight for the emergence of something very new in human history: a multiracial, multiethnic, multi-faith democratic republic! This is something new in human history, folks!! But then, this is the U.S.A.! Haven’t we always thought of ourselves as pioneers? Well…