Lending Weight to Justice

What a strange, disturbing week. 

On Tuesday, the Pennsylvania Senate erupted into a shouting match as the senate majority refused to swear in a senator elected in a tight, contentious race. In effect, GOP senators refused the decision of PA courts and the constitutional leadership of the Lieutenant Governor, insisting that they, and they alone, are the final arbiters of elections and have final say in questions of process.

That was a sad foretaste of the tragic insurrection in Washington, DC the following day. We've all seen bits and pieces of that, trying to understand how the events unfolded. Stories are still emerging: laptops stolen, offices trashed, legislators on the floor for hours, afraid for their lives. The full picture may never be known: who organized and orchestrated the events, who provide rioters with information about which offices to target and best ways to enter, why the capital police was so ineffective in response.  

For me, one of the most troubling aspects was the clear discrepancy between response to this event and response to other protests. Any person of color watching would know that if those rioters had been black or brown, many would have been dead within the first hour. Commentator Joy Reid put this into words in a video shared across the globe. 

Later in the week, I sat in on a forum the organization I lead, Fair Districts PA, helped host and promote.  I listened to stories of people I know who have felt the harsh weight of unjust policing, the bitter reality of a criminal justice system that incarcerates poor people who can't afford bail, then refuses to provide adequate legal defense. 

How is it possible that so much of the white evangelical church, and so many people I know and love, have aligned more closely with the rioters who breached our capital than with the broken hearts of minority communities?

How is it possible that it's easier for some to believe elections were stolen, despite 61 court cases refuting that claim, than that minority communities, and fair-minded people, did all they could to remove a racist president?

My reading this morning was in Psalm 85, asking God to show favor and restore the nation.

Will you not revive us again, that you people may rejoice with you?
Show us your unfailing love, O Lord, and grant us your salvation.

The next verse caught my attention: 

I will listen to what God the Lord will say;

He promises peace to his people, his saints -
But let them not return to folly. 

Were the events of this week enough to make folly clear?

I find myself thinking about calls for unity, calls for restoration, questions about how to heal a nation so bitterly divided. 

Fair Districts PA had lots of press this week. We've been advocating for fair rules in our Pennsylvania legislature. We are fighting hard against a PA constitutional amendment that would undermine judicial independence.

And we were mentioned in an article encouraging engagement in democracy: Choose Democracy. That article gives lots of ideas for civic engagement in the days ahead. Not least:

Talk to each other. Take a step outside your bubble, have a conversation with someone you think might disagree with you on something. The American tent is truly big enough for all of us. Try these tips from Megan Phelps-Roper, who grew up and was social media coordinator for the hate-mongering Westboro Baptist Church until she started talking to her critics on Twitter. Meaningful conversation can make a difference. Yelling at each other gets us where we were yesterday—and never want to be again.

Healing the broken heart of democracy, and of our nation, will take work from all of us. 

I'm reminded of a poem by Bonaro Overstreet someone gave me decades ago, one I've thought of often in this turbulent week:

You say the Little efforts that I make
will do no good: they never will prevail
to tip the hovering scale
where Justice hangs in balance.

I don’t think I ever thought they would.
But I am prejudiced beyond debate
in favor of my right to choose which side
shall feel the stubborn ounces of my weight.

I DO believe the little efforts that we make can help to tip the scale.

I believe the conversations that we have can help us turn from folly.

I pray you join me in listening, talking, thinking, praying about how best to lend your weight as justice hangs in balance.