God Bless America

Hello All,

I wrote this week’s blog last weekend. I was ready to go on Thursday night – being productive! And then the events of Wednesday occurred. So I will hold onto the blog I had scheduled for this week for next week. In my heart, I knew I needed to write something very different this week.

My cell phone started to buzz repeatedly on Wednesday afternoon, to the point where I actually had to stop and check it out. I watched with a very heavy heart and a horrified mind the news of the riots and the storming of our congressional chambers. I watched as people huddled in fear, while others destroyed our – we the people’s –  buildings. I watched as the very democracy we love was challenged in such a vile way. Then I watched as the House and Senate came back to complete their work – together! I have to tell you that I was proud of the resolve they – Democrats, Independents, Repupblicans – demonstrated that evil would not triumph – that our country, our democracy is important.

I know that our democracy will not be destroyed. I know, though imperfect, what we have, what people have fought for in the past and have stood fast for to this very day, will survive. It will take time for us to get over the shock. It will take time for us to regroup. It will take time for us to heal. And I believe it will take us time to figure out how to bridge the divide that exists in this country.

I also have faith that though collectively many/most of “we the people” may disagree on the “how”, we do agree on the “what”. That we want all people to be treated as equals – that we want everyone to be safe, physically, emotionally, spiritually – that we want everyone to be able to eat and have good health – that we want to everyone to have educational opportunities to be successful (because that is how our whole country moves forward) – and that we want the future to be solid for our children and all that follow.

My friend Trudy sent me the message that Anne M. Kress, PhD, President of Northern Virginia Community College sent out today. I wish I were this eloquent! I will not include the whole letter that she wrote. I am adding the parts that spoke to my heart, that lifted me up on a day when it was difficult to feel uplifted (I hope she doesn’t mind!):

“Today is the birthday of Zora Neale Huston, and something that she wrote came up in my feed this morning, the morning after the unimaginable: ‘There are years that ask questions and years that answer.’ These words cut right through the hate.

2020 was a year that asked searing and painful questions about the lasting impact of structural racism and income equality and the inequities revealed by a pandemic that would not stop. The start of 2021 brought with it a kind of magical thinking, a belief that a new calendar would make these questions go away. Yesterday, we saw that it did not; it never could.

Yesterday democracy was attacked, we saw it with our own eyes and we cannot wish or explain it away. It was ugly and terrifying and real.

2021 has started by asking us the same hard question that 2020 did.

If this is to be the year that answers, if it has to be different, we must make it so, together. I ask you to join me in answering. Community colleges are democracy’s colleagues; here dreams are made real; here opportunity lives; here the door is open; and here our answer is hope.

A hope that fills every space and leaves no room for hate; a hope that reaches every corner; an unstoppable hope that meets every challenge undeterred; a clear and open-eyed hope that sees the world for what it is but knows what it can and must be; a tough, bold and brilliant hope that will not be defeated, quieted, or dimmed.

I hope that you will hope too.

Let’s make 2021 a year that answers.”

I have new resolve to become more involved, to not be complacent about our democracy. I have hope!

God bless America.

Phyl