Originally published in Nyack News and Views
On September 17, 1787, during the Continental Congress,
Benjamin Franklin was reportedly asked by a local woman, “Well, Doctor, what
have we got, a Republic or a Monarchy?” at which Dr. Franklin replied, “a
Republic, if you can keep it.”
The meaning SHOULD be obvious to all Americans. And that is:
having and maintaining a Republic is a participatory event. For
Democracy to work, it requires the ACTIVE engagement of ALL its citizens, not
only to vote but to be involved with issues that affect our Country as a whole.
There is a term for that - Democracy in Action. And it was on full
display this past Sunday (3/9).
A group of citizens concerned about the direction our
current Administration is leading us down came together in South Nyack, NY to
express not just concern, but outrage over what so many Americans see as a
deliberate attempt to limit the freedom so many have sacrificed so much to win.
The date of the event was also steeped in symbolism as it corresponded to the 60th
Anniversary of the infamous “Bloody Sunday” attack on a group of peaceful
marchers in Alabama. Mostly blacks but with some whites, they were there to
raise awareness of voting rights for ALL. As they attempted to cross The Edmund
Pettus Bridge in Selma on their way to Montgomery, they were viciously and
savagely attacked by the police and an angry mob using dogs, nightsticks, and
water cannons. Many people, including the legendary John Lewis, were beaten
without mercy. Can you image? All because these people were simply demanding
their Constitutional right to VOTE! The images that were shown of the
attack shocked not only the nation, but the world.
So, on a bitterly cold morning, under the auspices of Indivisible
Rockland, a civic organization dedicated to resisting President Trump’s
often draconian Executive Orders and beyond, a crowd estimated at 500 concerned
citizens assembled peacefully to honor those who marched that day 60 years ago
and continued marching despite the violence against them. After assembling at a
local church and led by Rabbi Ariel Russo of Congregation Sons of Israel and
Pastor Everett Newton of The First Emmanuel Church of Christ, the modern-day Freedom
Marchers would travel in an orderly fashion on the SUP (Shared Use Path)to
midspan of The Mario Cuomo Bridge, not only commemorate those who survived that
fateful day but to continue in the tradition of active participation in our
democratic process. There they would unfurl a banner to identify these folks as
being from Rockland County, NY and then peacefully return. The relative fitness
of the marches seemed not to matter. Some were even in wheelchairs, but they
all managed to walk a total of about 5 or 6 miles.
Bill Batson, Indivisible Rockland Organizing Committee
Member, summed it up their purpose best when he said, “The ideals enshrined
in the stories of Americans like John Lewis who led the first wave of marches
over the Edmund Pettus Bridge, are being expunged from the public and private
sphere. In the span of one month 60 years of progress has been erased. We need
to stop this mean-spirited, discriminatory backlash and reassert the
Constitutional guarantees of all Civil Rights era advances.”
For me, perhaps the most poignant moment was when an elderly,
but still strong and vital black woman named Cora Parker spoke. She told the
crowd that she was a young girl when she was at The Edmund Pettus Bridge on
that fateful day with her brothers and sisters. She spoke with tears in her
eyes as she recalled first her confusion as to what was happening and then her
abject terror when she saw the police savagely beating everyone, including her
own brothers. She sought shelter with her sisters in a local church until the
violence subsided. But even she was not immune to the violence and still bears
the physical scars from the batons and a cattle prod (yes, a CATTLE PROD) that
were used to beat her down. You could still see the pain in her eyes. The
physical scars may have healed but the mental ones caused by being treated as less-than-human
will never go away.
However, in addition to the tears, I saw a resolute rage in
her eyes. She was shaking with emotion as she continued to relate her story and
promising much as the Jews did after the Holocaust that it must never happen
again. WE must make sure that it never happens again. The future is OURS to
make. We only fail when we relinquish our humanity and yield to our baser
instincts of fear and loathing. And there is HOPE. But remember what Dr.
Franklin said, we have our Republic, if we can keep it. I intend to. And if
last Sunday was an indication, I am not alone.
EPILOG: Even voting for the right is doing nothing for it. It is only expressing
to men feebly your desire that it should prevail. A wise man will not leave the
right to the mercy of chance, nor wish it to prevail through the power of the
majority.
Henry David Thoreau
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