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This is not remotely me minimizing the horror of how many people in this country are fucking awful—if you’ve been following me for more than five minutes you should know that—but please remember something.
There are so many good people in this country. There are so many people who stepped up, who did the work, who decided they wanted to fight for something better, who took care of each other, who refused to stand for what was happening.
There are people in this country we should never forgive, nor forget what they did. But they aren’t the only people who live here, and they don’t outnumber us.
Listen: I did my dissertation on Nazi death camps.
Listen: I did my dissertation on Nazi death camps.
I spent years immersed in some of the most heinous things we as a species have ever done. I read hundreds of pages of detailed testimonials of unimaginable cruelty and inhumanity.
Did I come out of that work with a dimmer view of human nature?
No.
The opposite.
No.
The opposite.
I came out of it more hopeful. I came out of it believing that we, in the words of Catholic writer Brian Doyle, “have greatness and holiness within us, like seeds that open only under great fire”.
I read so many accounts of situations where you would believe no humanity could survive, no compassion or nobility, and it did. Time after time, it did. Over and over, people proudly defied the monsters who were destroying them even as it happened.
If human beings could come through that with their humanity intact, then we are more than what we seem, and we are more than our worst parts, and the best of us persists beyond the worst.
America is full of horrific people, but they aren’t the only ones here. We are also here.
Please do not mistake what’s happened as a failure on the part of us. This is a victory for us. It’s not complete, but it’s a victory.
Please do not mistake what’s happened as a failure on the part of us. This is a victory for us. It’s not complete, but it’s a victory.
There is so much to be hopeful for, and to fight for, and to love. You need to remember that.
At the end of the day, that’s what we have.
At the end of the day, that’s what we have.
That’s the paradox of America, and it’s the paradox of human beings: that so much evil and so much goodness can exist in the same time and space.
I get romantic about America, to the point of sentimentality. I know that, I own it.
I get romantic about America, to the point of sentimentality. I know that, I own it.
But I’m proud of us. I’m proud of what we’ve done, I’m proud of the fact that we’ve come a great distance and I believe we can go further.
And I guess that’s all I wanted to say.
And if I can keep my faith in humanity after what I’ve seen, so can you.
And I guess that’s all I wanted to say.
And if I can keep my faith in humanity after what I’ve seen, so can you.
