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Delimiting History

I think that we name things "battles" to pretend that conflicts have well-determined beginnings and endings, all of history to the contrary. In particular we do like to celebrate victories even though none are perfect and without long-term implications.

I lose track of this frequently. I was happy when Obama was elected twice (and still am very happy that he was) but the celebrations did not prevent the racist backlash that Trump took advantage of. I was saddened when Trump passed his so-called Muslim travel-ban and yet who we allow into our country has always betrayed our bigotries of the moment.

This is one of the reasons that I like to read (as an amateur) histories, to see past arbitrary delimiters around struggles. Two eras in particular help me as I yearn for a less debased Congress, for two political parties that champion the values in our constitution, for Trump to go to jail for any and all of the crimes that he has bragged about over the years.

The first is the Revolutionary War, which we ambled into as a people, fighting and bickering but identifying something worth aspiring to. It fizzled out eventually; Cornwallis surrendered but it took a while for other nations to acknowledge our independence. We had a bunch of slaveholders writing about freedom, what a mess and yet there was movement toward something better if not a road-to-Damascus enlightenment for all those folk wearing powdered wigs.

The second is the Civil Rights Struggle. (I never liked using the work Movement, as if there was a single direction.)  There has always been more to do with every victory, and to paraphrase Bernard Lafayette, within every defeat was an opportunity to be seized. It is a long history and we know few of the names of the heroes involved.

Something I told my children when they were young is still true today: my heroes have always been in it for the long haul. Every struggle continues, and it is up to us every day in our own worlds to fight the good fight. Every single day.

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