Individuals who are so exceedingly amicable, gracious, and compromising (usually a positive concept) that, for the sake of personal tranquility and acceptability among their companions, they sit silently while the American people’s rights are trampled, may, in their defined principles, be called good persons, and even celebrated in their communities. But they do not meet the standard of their civic obligations. They studiously avoid the storm, the whirlwind, and the earthquake Frederick Douglass found necessary to achieve progress when trying to wrest citizens’ freedom from the grip of oppressors. Douglass said, “Power concedes nothing without a demand. It never did and it never will.”
George Washington’s comment is on the same point: “Experience has taught us that political leaders will not adopt and carry into execution measures not best calculated for their own good without the intervention of a coercive power.”
Few citizens are willing to brave the disapproval of their fellows, the censure of their colleagues, the wrath of their society. Moral courage is a rarer commodity than bravery in battle or great intelligence. Yet it is the one essential, vital quality of those who seek to change a world which yields most painfully to change. (Ernest Hemingway)
There is not a more repulsive spectacle than people who will not seek with unrelenting power and perseverance to transform the nation – its vision, its habits, its values, its ethics, and its actions — which has already forsaken, oppressed, suppressed and exploited them, whether the tools used to harm were religious, political, or social. (From T. S. Eliot)
But the people need good local leaders to pursue such ends. Silence becomes Depraved Indifference when it encourages and cloaks abusers. Benjamin Franklin said, “Justice will not be served until those who are unaffected are as outraged as those who are.”
First the AUTOCRATS, the TYRANTS, the RACISTS and the MISOGYNISTS came for the poor, the uneducated, the oppressed minorities, but since you weren’t poor, uneducated, or an oppressed minority, you did not stand up for them; and when they come for you, there may be nobody left to stand up for you. (Inspired by Pastor Martin Niemöller)
Good People: Do no harm, verbally or physically to anyone, nor tolerate among them those who do harm others; do good whenever and wherever possible; stop harm that is being done to others; and work to eliminate past harm done to the people within their communities.
If you want to be truly GOOD in more than name only — Start doing the things you think should be done, and start being what you think society should become. Do you believe in free speech? Then speak freely. Do you love the truth? Then tell it. Do you believe in an open society? Then act in the open. Do you believe in a decent and humane society? Then behave decently and humanely. (Adam Michnik) Socrates called people GOOD only if they persevere in the pursuit of a better society by helping the oppressed despite the animosity that they so often suffer from people in their own communities — he called them Gadflies. They have also been called trailblazers, china-breakers, razor-walkers, intrepid, different drummers, torchbearers, and forerunners. There are many firsts on their vitae. They are willing to be everything or nothing in the eyes of the world.
They are usually misunderstood. Is it so bad, then, to be misunderstood? Pythagoras was misunderstood, and Socrates, and Jesus, and Luther, and Copernicus, and Galileo, and Newton, and every pure and wise spirit that ever took flesh. To be great is to be misunderstood. (Ralph Waldo Emerson) Gadflies’ most glowing trait is Moral Courage. Today, they are assailed because they threaten the status quo. Benjamin Mee said, “Sometimes all you need is 20 seconds of insane courage. Just twenty seconds of embarrassing bravery. And I promise you, something great will come of it.”
Gadflies in a democracy know that the ballot is the weapon that thwarts both tyranny and tyrants. They know also that if all citizens of voting age exercised their enfranchisement responsibility, OPPRESSION, FASCISM, AUTOCRACY, TYRANNY, BRUTAL ECONOMIC DISPARITIES, INJUSTICE, and UNFAIR LAWS would be impossible. Good are those who vote! Better are those who chastise non-voters. Best are those who challenge voter suppressors – America’s consummate Domestic Enemies.
Many Americans are unwilling to openly assail the nation’s Domestic Enemies for fear of verbal or physical attacks. That trepidation is understandable given that violence has been sanctioned by leaders at our highest national level and has increased. Fear notwithstanding, perhaps the ostensibly good but silent citizens, when they entered the voting booths on November 5, displayed Mee’s twenty seconds of insane courage and voted to save America from Fascism. Only then should we call them GOOD.
