We have experienced another hard week of gun violence in America. For me, it has been a week of intense emotions – heavy emotions as well as joy and hope. How do we escape the doom loop? How do we stop partaking when it is dished up to us from all sides of the media and culture that we swim in?
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Who are we, America?
Feb 01 2021
Photo by Luke Stackpoole on Unsplash
The past year has, among other things, made me question how well I know my country and its foundations.
Already the events of this new year have caused us to ask: What is America? Who are we? In response to the insurrection in the U.S. Capitol on January 6, (then) President-Elect Biden said: “This is not who we are.” To which many others quickly countered: Oh, yes, indeed it is.
Ibram X. Kendi, anti-racist scholar and author, wisely commented in the days following the insurrection that yes, this is who we are. “It’s not all of us, but it’s part of us.” To live into the challenge of our times requires us to be grounded in the complexity of reality rather than our simplifications, useful as those may sometimes be. Truth, I believe, is made of many layers and seeming contradictions.
I am compelled to face the brutal and heartbreaking truths of our history, including the present moment, while also learning the inspiring truths about those who have always been present fighting for humanity and against injustice. I want to learn so that I can more certainly and effectively join forces with those working toward a more just, humane and truthful society. I am fortunate to find those stories close at hand.
Last Wednesday, our campus community heard from five first-year student storytellers in an astounding convocation (you can watch the video recording here). One of those storytellers was Isis Espinoza, who spoke a powerful tribute to her mother who trekked across the Sonoran desert when pregnant and sixteen years old to escape violence in Honduras. It is our joyful privilege to have immigrants like Isis in our GC community, along with many others fighting for their dignity and rights.
Last week, several churches in our community were joined by many viewers for an evening with musician John McCutcheon to raise funds to support the legal fees of immigrants in our community. It is inspiring to see and hear this community at work in support of human rights.
America is a complex and contradictory reality; I want to grapple with the truth and advance the good. Let us cultivate a GC community that is capable of listening deeply and speaking truthfully, holding the complexity with keenly educated minds and strong hearts.
‘Even in darkness, ever-rising joy’
My 17-year-old self
Marvin Blickenstaff was my piano professor at Goshen when I began as a first-year student in the fall of 1979. Seeing him, and listening to his teaching and performance, transported me back to my 17-year-old self – a strange and vivid experience that was both disorienting and orienting.
‘Freedom for everyone’
Every day is a good day to learn a little more about history. Today, Juneteenth, is an especially good day to listen to a story that has shaped our present day through a long and painful struggle for freedom. In the words of Opal Lee, the grandmother of Juneteenth, the freedom we celebrate through the telling of this story is freedom not only for enslaved people, or Black people, or Texans, but for everyone.