A coup is not necessarily a dramatic event, tanks moving through the streets at dawn.
A coup can be just as effective, and often is, when it’s the incremental diminishment of people’s freedom. And this doesn’t just pertain to legal freedom. It means a limiting of the spaces where we feel free to express ourselves - not only legally, but psychologically or emotionally. It means a diminished sense that you’re free to be who you want to be, believe what you want to believe, and say what you want to say without fear of reprisal.
Whether it’s having to get rid of a pride flag at work, or seeing a website disappear that explained the history of our country, or actual policies passed that make it harder for anyone to exercise their rights, such things are contrary to the tenets of a free society. Of course we’re not going to always agree with each other, but in a way that’s the point! We used to say things like, “It takes all kinds,” or “Well, it’s a free country” when we saw people do or say things that weren’t our cup of tea. But we didn’t think we had the right to tell them they had to stop!
The Civil Rights movement in the 1960’s was - or so we thought at the time - America’s final slap back to those who would say that any group of people had less rights than others to fulfill their dreams. Those same forces, temporarily stalled, are back and in some ways as empowered as ever. Perhaps not enough American children were taught growing up that “liberty and justice for all” means exactly that.
A teacher once told me, “When in doubt, go back to the classics.” Nothing is more classic, or more relevant to this time, than the Gettysburg Address. If you want to feel inspired, read every word…
Four score and seven years ago our fathers brought forth on this continent, a new nation, conceived in Liberty, and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal. Now we are engaged in a great civil war, testing whether that nation, or any nation so conceived and so dedicated, can long endure. We are met on a great battle field of that war.
We have come to dedicate a portion of that field, as a final resting place for those who here gave their lives that that nation might live. It is altogether fitting and proper that we should do this. But, in a larger sense, we can not dedicate—we can not consecrate—we can not hallow—this ground. The brave men, living and dead, who struggled here, have consecrated it, far above our poor power to add or detract. The world will little note, nor long remember what we say here, but it can never forget what they did here. It is for us the living, rather, to be dedicated here to the unfinished work which they who fought here have thus far so nobly advanced. It is rather for us to be here dedicated to the great task remaining before us—that from these honored dead we take increased devotion to that cause for which they gave the last full measure of devotion—that we here highly resolve that these dead shall not have died in vain—that this nation, under God, shall have a new birth of freedom—and that government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth.
— Abraham Lincoln, 1863
No group of people is entirely to blame for what’s happening, and no group of people is totally without responsibility for what’s happening. But every group, and every individual, has a part to play in making things better now. We’re in the middle of a full-fledged, forceful effort to remake American society; to reconstruct it in a way that’s narrow and limited for everyone except those who believe a certain way, perhaps look a certain way, and even pray a certain way.
Starting with the Founders and moving through all the chapters of American history, the souls of all the greats who have been among us are calling out to us now: You’re on. Don’t fuck this up.
NOTICE: For my paid subscribers, we will do a zoom call tomorrow giving all of us a chance to process our thoughts and feelings about current events.
Link below for Zoom call Saturday, February 15th, at 2pmPT/5pmET. Calling All Patriots (don’t you dare let them have that word!)
