Keep your eyes on the arc of the moral universe...

 I just wrote the following, as a comment on a friend's Facebook page.  I realize that it really at least begins to sum up my feelings about last week's seditious, treasonous coup attempt.  I've been so beyond-all-description/words-upset about it ever since.  But in this that I just wrote, I realize that there is a candle of hope, a flame of light, to hold on to.  Is it the rainbow light spectrum in Theodore Parker's arc of the moral universe, bending toward justice?  I hope so.  Here's what I wrote:

45's supporters are a hate-filled, now amped-up cult. They're not going to stop. All we can do is be fact-based in the face of all the disinformation and lies, apply the rule of law, and realize that all of their hate and ugliness and violence and headline grabbing doesn't change the fact that, on that same day of the insurrection, an African-American who has MLK's old pulpit, and a young Jewish man, won Senate seats in Georgia. As Van Jones said, some good "is trying to happen". These scared, mostly white people are really reacting to their gut knowledge that America is becoming more and more diverse. They don't like that. 45 has played into their desire to blame "the other" for everything wrong in their lives (instead of blaming people like 45 who don't pay taxes and don't want to invest in people and green jobs and infrastructure and health care and child care and education, ETC., and just want massive tax cuts for the rich, which is all the repug party stands for, other than xenophobia). He's convinced them that any news they hear is "fake" unless it comes from him. They are a cult and they are radicalized now. And the ones who engaged in what we witnessed on Wednesday are treasonous terrorists.

I will add: in the year 2000, I believed (and still believe) that the election was stolen from Al Gore. Unlike with these people, who think the 2020 election was "rigged" based solely on 45's constant lying about it even before the election took place, in 2000, the Republicans would not allow the recount that was called for by Florida law to proceed fully, and, long story short, the election really was either stolen or the integrity of it was stolen, as either way, we didn't truly know who won (Gore did--but ANYWAY, moving along to my point). Many of us voters, particularly ardent Gore supporters such as myself, and ardent supporters of election integrity such as myself, were very, very aggrieved.

Some protested. But did we storm with capitol with zip ties and molotov cocktails, attack and kill police officers, and try to get to elected representatives to, apparently, at the very least, attack them? No we did not. Because we are not terrorists. We live by the rule of law. The Supreme Court ruled that the recount could not proceed. Bush won. We hated it. We thought (and still KNOW) it was not fair or proper or right.

Gore got up and told everyone to accept the Supreme Court decision. Gore did that for the sake of the democracy and rule of law. And we all, though our hearts were broken and STILL are to this day, trust me--I'm not over it--accepted the decision. Like I said, some protested it. No one stormed the Capitol.

So don't tell me I have to listen to these hateful, entitled, violent, lawless 45 supporters. I'm so indescribably over listening to them. I've been forced to listen to them and live under the hegemony of their beliefs for 40 years, ever since Reagan. I thought this strain of ugliness in our country started in 1980, coincidentally the year I came of age. I'm older and wiser now, with more perspective and understanding of history. I see now that it has always been here. When I was a tiny tot in the early 1960's, these were the people unleashing dogs on the civil rights protesters and burning crosses and killing young black and Jewish activists in the south. And last week, we had an African-American and a young Jewish man WIN Senate seats in the south. So that is progress. And these ugly, ugly terrorists may be able to stun us all and grab the headlines for a while, steal the headlines from that, but they can't change it.

"The arc of the moral universe is long, but it bends toward justice." - Theodore Parker (Unitarian Minister), and famously quoted by the Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. -

We lit a candle in the dark last week when MLK's successor won a seat in the Senate from Georgia, and a young Jewish man did, too. That candle's flame still glows, though the darkness is thick around it.