Tom Finneran: Will America Rise

Friday, June 19, 2020

Tom Finneran, GoLocalWorcester MINDSETTER™

Tom Finneran is the former Speaker of the House in MA

One thinks of Winston Churchill’s warning about “failing to rise to the level of events”.

Churchill clearly saw the existential threat that Adolf Hitler posed to the world and his words challenged the many hesitant nations to stand up and stand against Hitler’s vicious regime. Churchill challenged those nations and his own countrymen to rise to the level of events.

I wonder if America today might not also rise to its level of events.

Americans today do not confront a foreign demon such as Hitler. Of course, Xi and Putin are no angels. But neither are they existential threats. They are tired tyrants with a multitude of problems at home and abroad.

Rather, America’s demons are race relations, racial justice, and racial equity.

The history is ugly, brutal, savage, and dis-spiriting. That history seems to lock us in cold hard ice, unable to rise to the level of events, a level of basic and decent humanity for all beings.

Admittedly, I’m an old white guy. I can no more talk about the actual black experience in America than I can talk about the Jewish experience in Germany during World War II. There are certain things that must be lived in order to be fully grasped. Nonetheless, as a fellow human being, I can feel a gross revulsion at the savage indignities of the Holocaust, the Middle Passage, and the antebellum South.

And so I offer a few thoughts on America and on race:

The Covid-19 pandemic seems to have taken a disproportionate toll on the African-American community in America. It is reliably reported in countless medical journals that the African American community experiences higher rates of heart disease, hypertension, and diabetes than the general population. That the Covid-19 virus imposes its highest toll on the elderly, the infirm, and those whose health is compromised by underlying health conditions seem to be well established. Thus, the COVID effect on African Americans is heart-breaking but not surprising. Might not the COVID crisis however become the springboard for a serious national effort at improving the health conditions of black Americans? I love the confidence and determined ingenuity of the American space program. Might we not replicate and harness that unique American determination in the pursuit of improved black lives here on Mother Earth?

I hear about “the talk” that black parents feel obliged to hold with their sons as they come of age. Black parents, ever wary of dangerous historic interactions with police officers, warn their young sons about their behavior, should they ever find themselves in a traffic stop or any other type of police questioning. That such baseline suspicion exists about police officers who are sworn to “serve and protect” and American citizens whose needs and desires include service and protection, is not a recipe for calm and peaceful conditions. I know a number of black cops and I owe myself a conversation and education on their version of “the talk” with their sons. Perhaps more than any other group, it is those black cops who can make the most headway in addressing the historic fear that can make a black person feel like an alien in his own country. Those black cops have a unique experience through which they might educate their fellow white officers, as well as the rest of us. White America might need a history lesson here. I’ll be listening and hoping to learn.

It seems like a long long time ago, but I once thought that the election of Barack Obama was the beginning of the end of racial tension and suspicion in the United States. Oh Lord was I wrong about that. Racial issues persist and abound in 2020 America, notwithstanding white America’s embrace of Obama. Indeed, but for constitutional barriers, Barack Obama would likely have been elected to a third and possibly a fourth term by the American people. Would he not today cruise back into the White House if his name was on the ballot? And does not that offer tangible proof that America has steadily moved far beyond its ugly racial history to a new day? Obama was a better candidate than white John McCain. He was a better candidate than white Mitt Romney. He was a better candidate than white Hilary Clinton. And white America chose Obama on each occasion, as they would do so again if given the chance. White America assessed the whole person not just skin color. And, to the shock of New York Times’ “analysts” who predicted an unspoken racist resistance to Obama’s candidacies, America demonstrated that it is far better than its critics allege.

Yet we have much more work to do and miles to go before we sleep…………….

The question remains---will America rise to the level of events?