Songs about Heroes

If you are sensitive about your politics, just unfollow me now.

music notes (Image is AI generated, all the words I wrote are human generated)

I shared two things in my Instagram feed yesterday. Not that this is news, but it is noteworthy. I posted a quote from George Washington's farewell letter from 1796, and a small portion of a sermon. Who knew founding fathers and ministers used such offensive language- enough so that followers pulled up stakes and pitched their tents elsewhere. I wish them well and that they feel safer now.

I've been doing that a lot lately- scaring people away. Truth does that. It doesn't matter how much the truth is spoken with love, people don't like it, especially when it makes them uncomfortable, makes them fidget in a pew, or their recliner. And if it hits them in their politics it can make it hard to stand up straight, and they don't like that either.

I don't know if you are old enough to remember those writing contests in the back of newspaper periodicals. This was back in the day, and I'm no spring chicken. I remember looking forward to the weekly insert and scanning for writing contests. I loved the challenge of trying to write something worthy of gracing the pages of that shiny periodical. It didn't matter, probably because I didn't realize, that it was mostly for adults and I, well, was in fourth grade. One particular contest involved writing about an unsung hero. I latched onto that challenge because there were so many heroes who didn't have songs written about them. Be kind, I was in fourth grade. I chose my subject and composed the best argument I could muster quoting facts, and actions deserving of immortalization in song. My subject? Frederick Douglass. I didn't win. I do remember that an essay about trashmen won and that I was as righteously indignant as a fourth grader can be, at least until snack time. Looking back now it looks like such an honest mistake, but also an illuminating one. My heroes have always been…a little different. Raise your hand if you thought I was going to say cowboys…

I am not one for celebrity, or influencers, or popularity contests. Once, when working in church leadership, I was required(cringe) to take part in a video interview on why Jesus was my hero. I get a sick feeling in my stomach even thinking about it. I did the video(I liked having a job) and am still ashamed of it- nearly twenty years on. Jesus is not my hero- he is my God and there is a marked difference, at least in my book. To reduce him to hero status rang false with me and I will always regret not standing up and saying so. Anyway, I don't do celebrity, or popularity, or blind following- at least not anymore. But I do buy into heroes, real ones. Not the bullies, not the power hungry, the sycophants who pander, but real, honest to God heroes. People who stand up, who point out, who warn, who admonish…

“Find out just what any people will quietly submit to and you have the exact measure of the injustice and wrong which will be imposed on them.” Frederick Douglass

Or this one…

“Let me now take a more comprehensive view and warn you in the most solemn manner against the painful effects of the spirit of party, generally. This spirit, unfortunately, is inseparable from our nature having its root is in the strongest passions of the human mind. It exists under different shapes and all governments, more or less stifled, controlled, or repressed; but, in those of the popular form, it is seen in its present rightness and is truly their worst enemy. The alternate domination of one faction over another, sharpened by the spirit of revenge, natural to party dissension, which in different ages and countries has perpetuated the most horrid enormities, is itself a frightful despotism. But this leads at length to a more formal and permanent despotism. The disorders and miseries which result gradually inclined the minds of men to seek security and repose in the absolute power of an individual; and sooner or later, the chief of some prevailing faction, more able or more fortunate than his competitors, turns this disposition to the purposes of his own elevation on the ruins of public liberty.”

“... guard against the impostures of pretended patriotism.”

George Washington

(This is a different quote than the one I posted yesterday-figured I’d go for broke.)

And in humility they ask,

“Let me make one final plea, Mr. President. Millions have put their trust in you and, as you told the nation yesterday, you have felt the providential hand of a loving God. In the name of our God, I ask you to have mercy upon the people in our country who are scared now. There are gay, lesbian and transgender children in Democratic, Republican, and Independent families, some who fear for their lives. The people who pick our crops and clean our office buildings; who labor in poultry farms and meat packing plants; who wash the dishes after we eat in restaurants and work the night shifts in hospitals. They…may not be citizens or have the proper documentation. But the vast majority of immigrants are not criminals. They pay taxes and are good neighbors. They are faithful members of our churches and mosques, synagogues, gurudwaras and temples. I ask you to have mercy, Mr. President, on those in our communities whose children fear that their parents will be taken away. And that you help those who are fleeing war zones and persecution in their own lands to find compassion and welcome here. Our God teaches us that we are to be merciful to the stranger, for we were all once strangers in this land. May God grant us the strength and courage to honor the dignity of every human being, to speak the truth to one another in love and walk humbly with each other and our God for the good of all people. Good of all people in this nation and the world. Amen”

Bishop Mariann Edgar Budde

I had a moment of hope when I saw the clip of Bishop Budde. The raw courage-the kind that quakes-it took to speak up, to speak directly into the maw and to do it with such humility and grace. That is heroism. Predictably, it didn’t take long for the low ball of retaliation to start rolling. If this doesn't give you pause, you aren't paying attention. To speak of love, compassion, a call to live a Christ-like reality, and then be summarily chastised and expected to apologize…hold on to your boots because this is just the beginning. And it won't end with some bogus, self approved version of good old KJ. Sing all you want of “mine eyes have seen the glory of the coming of the Lord”, he bears no resemblance to a certain corpulent politician with a bad comb over. And last time I checked, “grapes of wrath” were something to be trampled-not planted and fed.

It is with a sincere heart that I pray hope, and right (not the right) prevails, that those with the courage to speak out, to stand up, to say something are protected. We need heroes, real heroes, now more than ever.

Peace,

Susan

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This below the bar song is one I can remember humming in someone’s last administration-it must feel good to be immortalized in song.