“[referencing Martin Luther King Jr] the arc of the moral universe is long, but it bends towards justice. But here’s the thing. It does not bend on its own. It bends because each of us, in our own way, put our hands on that arc and we bend it towards justice”-President Barack Obama
Last night hurt. It hurt to see people I love celebrating the election of a person that, I feel, calls my worth into question. It hurt to remember all that I had felt as a 12 year old biracial girl watching an energetic biracial man enter the white house with a message of hope and change. And it hurt to feel the hope that 2008 had instilled deep within me, begin to crack a little bit. Last night just hurt to watch. A sharp and painful jab with every passing moment.
Today I am filled, not so much with a stinging pain as a deep deep aching. An aching in every fiber of my being and an uncertainty I cant even begin to explain. As I walk through today, I feel unglued.
But despite my uncertainty, I know this. We did not reach the level of progress we have achieved in this society easily. It was hard fought, and as we cast our ballots yesterday we stood on the backs of women and men who refused to accept life as it was and fought so that we could have the privilege of voting for whichever candidate we chose. All of the people, who sacrificed so that their children might someday reach a promised land they knew they may never see. All of the saints, who envisioned a more just society. We are here because of their visions, and their callings, and their sacrifice. That progress cannot and will not disappear overnight. It will evaporate only if we become complacent. Only if we throw up our hands, stepping away from the arc and from one another. Progress will be lost only if we stop marching, if we go silent. There is more work to be done here. Right now I’m hurting, but I know more certainly than I know anything today, that we cannot allow despair to stop us from bending the arc.
“We must accept finite disappointment, but never lose infinite hope”-Martin Luther King Jr.
Last night felt like a sucker punch to the gut, and this morning I’m trying to remember how to breathe. As I catch my breath, all I can think is that we have so much still to do. If our ancestors have taught us anything, it’s that it is possible to march through pain and through darkness. And that we have a moral obligation to do so.
As I wrote, this teaching from the Talmud, based on Micah 6:8 was on my mind.
“Do not be daunted by the enormity of the world’s grief. Do justly, now. Love mercy, now. Walk humbly, now. You are not obligated to complete the work, but neither are you free to abandon it”.
May it be so.