LET FREEDOM RING: PROMISE, CONFLICT, AND MEMORIALS
Yesterday I walked into the National Building Museum in Washington, DC. I'm not working right now, so I couldn't afford to pay the fee to view its current exhibits, but I marveled at the fireproof brick structure with its soaring columns and light-filled space. It was built in the late 1800s to house the Pension Bureau, a place where veterans came to collect their checks for services rendered. These men showed up believing that their government would deliver on its promises and obligations. Now, it costs money to view exhibits about buildings. The place no longer functions to serve people. Its story is different now.
Two days ago I paddled down the green Antietam Creek, near Sharpsburg, Maryland. Meandering through Washington County, it ran red after the Battle of Antietam, the single bloodiest day in American military history, with over 22,000 dead, wounded, and missing. Now, near where we put in, is a lone memorial structure, privately constructed after the Civil War, to honor war correspondents. It honors the observers and storytellers of a time when we resorted to militarized violence to resolve our disputes over government obligations to its people. I hope we never veer so far from normalcy ( note: MLK's original title for his I Have a Dream speech was " Normalcy, Never Again") that we have to tell that story again.
Fifty years ago an extraordinary orator, Martin Luther King, brought his words to the Lincoln Memorial, to address conflict and unfulfilled promises. He hammered at our consciences and struck bells of recognition with his relentless rhetorical repetition, from the "urgency of now" to "never" and "must" and "cannot" and "I have a dream." It's a testament to the power of language that today we all KNOW and USE his speech to demonstrate commitment to the ideals of equality and justice.
Today, the Let Freedom Ring celebration of Reverend King's work, words, and wisdom is also an opportunity for a lot of public figures to testify to the deep divisions and iniquities that still ripple through our society like the Antietam Creek in Sharpsburg. Each one of them is using language to portray, protest, and prompt. If you have these gifts, you must use them, no matter the milieu, as I discussed in MY POST ABOUT MAKING ART. We are counting on you to do what you do best.
No thank you, I don't need this sword; I have a pen.
I'm winding up my time in Washington. I saw a lot of hallowed memorials to conflict, to people who stand up, and to institutions that are supposed to protect me. I went around telling people I am the commander of words that work for me, for good causes, for Big Ideas. I haven't landed a job yet, but I still have my tools, my dreams, and a physical sense of the lessons of history: Use your words to make the world a better place.
Ring out loud.
