Hope on the Horizon

How is it that I, a proud pessimist, have the slightest tinge of hope for America’s future? Mostly because tens of thousands of people are marching peacefully, here and abroad, against obvious and entrenched racial injustice—day after day after day. Military leaders balk at treating peaceful protesters as the enemy. Pressure builds for the powers that be to address that injustice. And inroads are being made.

Statues honoring slaveholders and Confederate leaders are being removed, from the American South as far away as England. NASCAR and the military are retiring the Confederate battle flag, which is a symbol promoting segregation. Police departments are banning chokeholds and no-knock warrants, encouraging police to monitor each other’s compliance with new standards, and having their budgets redistributed away from military weapons and training towards supporting their communities for better health, education, and prosperity. For example, there is a movement to stop armed police from responding to situations that really call for community mediation, mental health professionals, or social workers.

I like to think that the triple blows of the pandemic, economic collapse, and social unrest have so undermined America’s unfounded belief in our strength and exceptionalism that increasing numbers of us are willing to acknowledge that we are flawed and need to change.

If Mitt Romney can march and chant “Black Lives Matter,” maybe we can hope that others will locate their moral compass and their backbone, and will be open to constructive change.