Lookin' Out For the Other Fella

Mr. Smith: [after reading from the Declaration of Independence] Now, you're not gonna have a country that can make these kind of rules work, if you haven't got men that have learned to tell human rights from a punch in the nose.

It's a funny thing about men, you know. They all start life being boys. (I wouldn't be a bit surprised if some of these Senators were boys once.) And that's why it seemed like a pretty good idea to me to get boys out of crowded cities and stuffy basements for a couple of months out of the year and build their bodies and minds for a man-sized job, because those boys are gonna be behind these desks some of these days.

And it seemed like a pretty good idea, getting boys from all over the country, boys of all nationalities and ways of living -- getting them together. Let them find out what makes different people tick the way they do. Because I wouldn't give you two cents for all your fancy rules if, behind them, they didn't have a little bit of plain, ordinary, everyday kindness and a little lookin' out for the other fella, too.

That's pretty important, all that. It's just the blood and bone and sinew of this democracy that some great men handed down to the human race, that's all! But of course, if you've got to build a dam where that boys' camp ought to be, to get some graft to pay off some political army or something, well that's a different thing. Oh no! If you think I'm going back there and tell those boys in my state and say: "Look, now fellas, forget about it. Forget all this stuff I've been tellin' you about this land you live in -- it's a lot of hooey. This isn't your country. It belongs to a lot of James Taylors." Oh no! Not me! And anybody here that thinks I'm gonna do that, they've got another thing comin'.

Mr. Smith Goes to Washington.  1939.  On the cusp of world war.  Did you know that just as the Germans were poised to invade Paris movie theaters there played this movie round-the-clock?  It would be their last taste of freedom for four years.  

Mr. Smith Goes to Washington. 2018.  Where is he?  Or she?  

We seem to be hopelessly  stuck in the quicksand of troubling headlines.  Remember those wonderful days of yore (a year or so ago) when something big would happen in politics or D.C every two or three months?  Those days of ho-hum politics are gone for awhile.  There seems to be no morality in the White House, and no spines in Congress.  It's easy to think maybe there is no hope and to pull away from it all and ignore TV and those 24/7 cable news shows.

But to do so makes us accomplices to the problem.  Our removal from the table doesn't make us better Americans, it just removes us.  We lose our voices and our  right to participate in Democracy.  You remember what that is don't you?  Just drive to any cemetery and look for the flags at the tombstones.  Or better yet, go to a national cemetery.  I was at one just last weekend in Bushnell, Florida.  Row upon endless row of white marble headstones representing one person's decision to put their lives on the line so we would have that participation.  They didn't live, fight and die so that we could put our heads in the sand and ignore our obligation as Citizens.  Tell the two Medal of Honor winners lying in these fields that you are too tired to participate in the American Experiment.

Bushnell National Cemetery last Saturday.

But, again, what can we do?   There are two things  we can do.  One takes a little time but the other can happen immediately.   The first thing is to educate ourselves.  This takes time, because to do so requires us to throw off the shackles of prejudice we clamp on our brains like armor.  Education requires a study of issues, candidates and an awareness of our times.  Most of us know the elderly person who still votes the way their fathers told them to when they first voted.  Education is hard.  The removal of the blinders we have made for ourselves can often let too much light in.  But, an educated and informed electorate is the heartbeat of the country.

The other is to do what Mr. Smith recommended:  "plain, ordinary, everyday kindness...and a little lookin' out for the other fella'."  This requires no education or party affiliation.  It requires no research, Hannity or Maddow.  All it really means is to put ourselves in the shoes of someone else; how they feel, what they fear, what they hope for.  

Next time you knock immigrants or their DACA kids, remember they're feelings, their fears and their hopes.  Next time you knock a black man, or a gay woman, or a trans person, think of their feelings, their fears and their hopes.  Next time you see a woman wearing a jihab consider their culture.  Try to recognize that their religion has been hijacked by terrorists much like ours was by the Westboro Baptists.  The next time you see someone who could use a little assistance, take the time. We need to be a little less kneejerk reaction and maybe a bit more "lookin' out for the other fella".

"It's just the blood and bone and sinew of this democracy."