Against the Insurrection: What do you stand for?

On this Special Harwood Half Hour, Rich Harwood discusses the insurrection in our nation’s capital yesterday. Today, he addresses “How do we make sense of what happened? Where are we as a country? How do we move forward from here?”

Hi, I'm Rich Harwood. Welcome to a special edition of Harwood Half Hour. After yesterday, I wanted to offer some reflections about what happened in our nation's capital, about how we can make sense of it, how you can hopefully make sense of it, and how we can move forward together.

I just want to talk a bit about what happened yesterday. And let's be clear about what did happen. A group of thugs, thousands of individuals, our fellow Americans, committed insurrection. They attacked one of the most basic institutions, democratic institutions that we have.

And I think we need to condemn what they did, openly and unequivocally. And let's be clear about something else about what happened yesterday, or at least what was implied in terms of what happened yesterday. If those thousands of people had not been predominantly white, but instead had been predominantly African American, or had been indigenous people, or maybe women, or maybe LGBTQ individuals, then the response from law enforcement would have been fundamentally different. This isn't something that I'm imagining, this is something that we have all witnessed in recent months. Just think back to Lafayette Square outside the White House. When thousands of both black and white protesters, peaceful protesters, were tear gassed and pushed back by the President of the United States. So he could go to St. John's Church and hold up a Bible in front of television cameras. And the response there was militarized. There were attack helicopters flying over individuals, there were military individuals in camouflage. There were weapons drawn against our fellow Americans.

Everything that happened yesterday, is happening against a backdrop of four simultaneous crises that are unprecedented in American history, the global pandemic of COVID-19 the economic turmoil that has resulted from this pandemic, systemic racism and social injustices, and a political crisis that has been brewing for 30 years or more, but it has become in clear focus again in just the last few days.

Now, I know that some of you are joining me today, feeling different things holding different emotions. Some of you are angry, angry about what's happened, angry about what is happening in our country. Some of you are incensed. Some of you are enraged about what happened yesterday, and what has been happening historically, in our nation. Some of you feel incredible uncertainty about where we are, and where we are going. Maybe you feel shaken to the core. Some of you may feel threatened by what is happening. Some of you may feel scared. Some may feel frightened.

But here's the thing, we must remember that the thugs that committed this insurrection at our nation's capitol yesterday, do not represent most Americans. Now, I know that there are some of you listening who may not want to hear this. But I believe deeply it is true. I believe it fervently that not even a large segment of the 70 million plus people who voted for President Trump are were represented by those thugs yesterday. Those thugs though do exist. They represent a form of extremism, of domestic violence and terrorism, of sedition. And make no mistake about it. They were incited by the person who lives in the White House named Donald J. Trump. Both the president and those thugs must account for their actions and be held responsible.

But here's another thing that we need to know. Well, so many Americans are not represented by those folks who committed sedition and insurrection at our nation's capitol yesterday. There is far too much division in our nation today, there is far too much acrimony. There are far too many grievances held by far too many people. There is too much hate, there is too much bigotry. There is too much systemic injustice across our land these days. And so the question for us, the question for us today more than any other day in recent times, is, who will we be? And who will we become?

And I happen to believe that the answer to these questions need to be found in our local communities. And we need to create responses to these questions in our local communities. There is no question that we need a change of leadership in our nation's capitol and in many state capitals. But the change that we need in our country is more is deeper and more profound than what any individual president or a new Congress or governor or state legislature can provide to us as Americans. There is work that we must do, as citizens of this country, as residents of our local communities, of people who are here. And it seems to me that this profound and deep work that we must do, starts with healing. 

There is a deep healing that needs to take place in our country today. As I talk to people across our country, I am struck by the underlying trauma that exists among our people. And I am struck by the growing trauma that is happening and spreading in our local communities. As a result of these four crises. I am struck by the greater need, the need for greater empathy, and compassion in our lives, I am struck by the need for us to make more room for people to express their sorrow, and even their rage, about their lives, about what's happening, about the history of our country, about what we need to do.

And I am struck not only about the need for these things, I'm struck in terms that if we are going to heal, we also need to be able to express what we are for, not simply what we are against. Part of our healing has to be an expression of who we want to become and what we are for.

Nelson Mandela once said, "People must learn to hate, and if they can learn to hate, they can be taught to love. For love comes more naturally to the human than its opposite. Man's goodness is a flame that can be hidden, but never extinguished." The goodness in America, the human spark that exists within each of us, as individuals that was God given to us the flame that exists within us and between us and among us. 

This is what I experienced every day in working with people in our local communities, from all corners of our country. It's why as we've been launching a new initiative with the Walton family foundation, we're talking to communities, that communities are saying to us, they want to work with us to build more educational equity in their communities, for their children, for everyone. It's why in Jackson, Mississippi, where we're doing work, people are coming together across line dividing lines of race and geography and economics, because they want to build bridges to build a better community, and a more can do spirit. It's why in Clark County, Kentucky, where community was wracked by an opioid and meth crisis by divisions of race and geography, by faith leaders who are creating divisions among their people, that folks there have come together and are rebuilding their community. And now responding to the systemic challenges that have emerged out of COVID-19 and existed long before COVID-19. It's why folks in Butte County, California where the campfire happened, and we're wildfires continue to happen. That people there want to come together and heal their community. All across the country. our fellow Americans want to come together and build a better society. A society that reflects the best of us and the best in us. And so my question for you today is what will you do?

What do we, what do you stand for? What do we stand for? Now, I know, I know like, you know, that it's easy right now to step back, that it's easy now to feel overwhelmed, there's good reason to step back. There's good reason to feel overwhelmed. But what we need, what I need from you, is for you to step forward, not that we need to lean into the challenges that we face together as Americans, we need to embrace the challenges that we face as Americans, we need to own the challenges that we need that we need to face as Americans. And in order to do these things, we've got to step forward.

Now, this will take courage, courage to put a stake in the ground about what you believe about what you're for. And equally, so it will take humility, to see and hear others and to be open to different points of view. It will take a clear commitment to affording each and every individual in our society dignity, as a non negotiable birthright as a God given right. Regardless of the color of one's skin, regardless of one's zip code, regardless of one's ethnicity or heritage regardless of where one lives regardless of the kind of car one drives regardless of one's economic station in life, that we must afford each and every individual dignity in our society.

This will take believing in the innate capacities of people of one another of each other, that we have that you have that together, we have the wisdom, the know how the knowledge, the wherewithal to come together and figure out solutions to the challenges we face and to overcome these challenges. And to create a better society for everyone. It will take the ability to build bridges. And yes to stand by people who may disagree with us, but who we can vouch for who we believe have good intentions and good character. Even if we do disagree on particular issues.

Now more than ever, we need to stand next to each other and stand by each other and vowed for one another's character and intentions. When we know even when we disagree, we still believe that we can build a better country together. And this will take embracing the beauty of a pluralistic society. Make no mistake about it. We need to resist calls to make our country more homogeneous. We need to resist calls to say that we all need to be alike. We need to resist calls that erase our heritage and our history. And where we are from and who we are and who we seek to become and who we love, and who we pray to, and who we believe in. 

But to maintain this pluralistic society, we also need to seek to create a culture of shared responsibility. Where we see each other moving together in common direction in common cause marshaling our common resources to create a shared nation where we believe that we all sink or swim together, where we believe that community is a common enterprise. And where community is not just for some of us, for those who look like us, or sound like us, or pray to the same God as us. But that community includes all of us. And I mean, all of us.

Now, there are some who might say that our challenge here is one of imagination. And I would agree, we do need to engage our imagination. But the prophets taught us that to simply engage our imagination alone will not do it will lead us awry that to engage our imagination, we must be clear eyed, and understand reality first. Without understanding reality, how in God's name could we ever know where we want to head where we want to go together?

And so, as we face these challenges today, as we seek to move past this insurrection, as we tried to build a better country Let us open our eyes, let us be awake, let us be attuned to one another. Let us see reality for what it is and not try to push it aside, sweep it aside sweep it under the rug, we simply try to erase certain parts of our history that may pain us. But no doubt exists.

And so to move forward in both engaging our imagination, and being rooted in reality, we must be clear about the fact that our path ahead is messy. This is not a moment for Kumbaya. This is not a moment to join hands and simply sing great songs. This is a time to engage and deal with the tough challenges that we face.

And make no mistake, we will have disagreements, we will have conflict, we will want to go in different directions. But our task today, our fundamental task amid these differences, is to find a way to reimagine and recreate our lives, our communities and the nation. And not to think that we can go back to normal because as we know, normal wasn't all that good for a whole lot of Americans. The question is, how can we begin again? How can we begin a new to create a country that reflects the best of us and the best in us, we have done it in the past. We can do it again today. And we must do it because we are called to create a more fair, a more equitable and more just more inclusive, and more hopeful society together.

Now before I conclude, let me just tell you why I believe this is so important, why it's so important to me. I love our country. I love our country and I yearn to protect it. It is a form of patriotism. And as you know, patriotism means devotion to country love of country. And it means to be devoted and to love one's country even when one sees problems in their country. I'ma James Baldwin on this. Baldwin once wrote, "I love America more than any other country in the world. And exactly for this reason, I insist on the right to criticize her perpetually." 

We are a nation that is great, I believe. But we are also a nation founded on original sins, sins against indigenous people whose land we took sins against those we enslaved and helped build the country on their backs. sins that we have. We have we have engaged with over over many generations since those times. I love this country and want to protect this country. Because I want to finish the work that we need to do in our country to repair the breaches that we face, to make our country a more perfect union to ensure that each and every individual has a real shot at participating in America's Promise to ensure that each individual regardless of who they are, where they're from the color of their skin who they pray to, can fulfill their God given potential. And that we not only deal with our future, but that we have the courage and the humility to confront our past.

Now, yesterday, we were each eyewitnesses to an interaction led by our nation's president, and those who have helped to enable him. There is no hiding from this fact. They must account and be held accountable. But here's my message to you today. Don't let yesterday dissuade you from the work we must do together. Don't let yesterday deflate you, don't have let yesterday defeat you. Don't let yesterday let you feel diminished. As Mandela said man's goodness is a flame that can be hidden, but never extinguished. Maya Angelou once wrote these words, "Today the rock cries out to us. Clearly, forcefully. Come, you may stand upon my back and face your distant destiny. But seek no haven in my shadow. I will give you no hiding place down here." The Rock cries out to us today. You stand on me. But do not hide your face. 

Today we are asked, What do we stand for? What will we fight for? What do we believe in? Who will we believe in? How can we believe in one another again? This is the work that stands before us. Let us stand upon the rock and see the reality that we face and have the courage and the humility to face this reality. And to then engage our imagination so that we can recreate a society that allows us to live our lives, our communities, and our nation in a way that builds a more just equitable, fair, inclusive and hopeful society. We have a lot of work to do.

Thanks for joining me. I look forward to hearing from you please send me any thoughts that you may have after today. If this message resonated with you, please share with others. If you want more information about the institute's work, go to the Harwood institute.org until next time, be well, stay healthy and in good spirit. Thanks for joining me.