By MIKE MAGEE
Give thanks for our America, blemishes and all. Ken Burns says as a lot, making it clear, we’re a multitude of contradictions, and that’s (partially) what makes us a uniquely American.
Contemplate that in a single week, now we have needed to endure Trump’s “Things happen” as he defended the Saudi crown prince ordering the Khashoggi killing, whereas additionally rejoice in his smack-down THE HILL headlined, “The Epstein recordsdata are a turning level within the Trump presidency, but it surely’s not over but.” Maybe Marjorie Taylor Greene stated it greatest for all of us, “I refuse to be a ‘battered wife’ hoping all of it goes away and will get higher.”
Within the shadow of an autocratic assault unparalleled in our fashionable historical past, Individuals are looking for a silver lining. Is it useful to our Democracy to be stress examined and our Constitutional weaknesses revealed in order that we would take corrective actions sooner or later? Ought to we settle for some blame for supporting a tradition wealthy in celeb idolatry, and one tolerant of unsustainable ranges of inequity? Hasn’t unbridled capitalism diminished solidarity and good authorities in equal measure?
It’s heartening to see lots of our public servants, a number of of whom are first technology immigrants, show their competence, professionalism and braveness in assist of those United States. Our residents wish to imagine that they, reasonably than their DOJ inquisitors, characterize us.
It’s encouraging that compassion, understanding, and partnership stay embedded within the caring residents who say NO to kings, challenged mass ICE invaders, and (with the Catholic Church) lent a robust voice to immigrants throughout our land.
In instances like these, I rely closely on a e-book my son, Mike, revealed with the College of Alabama Press in 2004, titled, “Emancipating Pragmatism: Emerson, Jazz, and Experimental Writing”. The e-book derived from his PhD dissertation on the College of Pennsylvania, and extensively delved into the writings of each Ralph Waldo Ellison, creator of “The Invisible Man”, and his namesake, Ralph Waldo Emerson.
So what did he say in his e-book that was so compelling that I flip to it right now, on the eve of one other Thanksgiving Celebration?
On web page 3: Quoting Emerson, “To interpret Christ, it wants a Christ…to make good the reason for freedom towards slavery you should be…Declaration of Independence strolling.”
On web page 7: On “pretend information,” Mike writes, “In the end, Emerson got here to imagine that ‘America’ itself was a form of textual content being learn, its that means a matter of collective choice. It adopted that one’s linguistic idea, one’s view of how phrases generate meanings, had probably large-scale social ramifications. In suggesting that phrases have been ‘million-faced’, Emerson got here to understand, he was suggesting that social risk was remakeable.”
On web page 18: On Change and Fairness, “Emerson writes…’the philosophy we would like is certainly one of fluxions and mobility’”.
On web page 19: On the American Tradition and Variety, “‘Out of the democratic rules set down on paper within the Structure and the Invoice of Rights’, Ellison says, Individuals ‘have been improvising themselves right into a nation, scraping collectively a acutely aware tradition out of assorted dialects, idioms, lingos, and methodologies of America’s numerous peoples and areas’”.
On web page 24: On the Evolution of American Language and Tradition, Mike quotes Ellison, “We neglect, conveniently typically, that the language we converse shouldn’t be English, though it’s primarily based on English. We neglect that our language is such a versatile instrument as a result of it has had so many dissonances thrown into it ….from Africa, from Mexico, from Spain, from God is aware of, all over the place.”
Web page 25 and 28: On Creating Our Historical past, Mike writes, “The jazz musician—who, Ellison says, all the time performs each ‘inside and towards the group’ — continually displays and redefines the ensemble by which he performs. Likewise the ensemble displays and redefines the bigger neighborhood to which it belongs….that (Ellison says) ‘anticipatory area the place actuality and risk, previous and current, are allowed to collaborate on a historical past of the long run.’”
This has been a momentous week. We have now made progress. We’re not static, not trapped, not powerless or fastened in place. “Fluxions and Mobility” are definitely in play. However there may be a lot left to be carried out. This could neither shock nor discourage.
On the ultimate web page of Mike’s e-book, he writes, “An emancipated pragmatism occurs every time and wherever a artistic thoughts or neighborhood of artistic minds engages in democratic symbolic motion.”
Democratic – Symbolic – Motion. These are greater than phrases. They’re a tradition of values. Our future is being written now. As Ken Burns just lately claimed, the American Revolution was “crucial occasion in world historical past for the reason that start of Christ.” By going public in assist of our nation’s immigrants, and placing their our bodies on the picket strains this week, the US Conference of Catholic Bishops stepped into the revolution with Christ and towards King Donald with each toes.
Joyful Thanksgiving.
Mike Magee MD is a Medical Historian and common contributor to THCB. He’s the creator of CODE BLUE: Inside America’s Medical Industrial Complex.(Grove/2020)
