Recently, one of my heroes, Molly Ivins, has been spoken of with regards to her commentary on Rick Perry. Or as Molly preferred to call him, Governor Goodhair. It put me to mind of two other American heroes from Texas: Ann Richards and Barbara Jordan. The absence of their voices in these times, times they would have reveled in, is beyond poignant.
There was no doubt that these women loved their country. Their patriotism was the same patriotism of Thomas Payne, Frederick Douglass and Will Rogers: people who loved their country enough to admonish it and still had faith that the power to do the right thing resided in the people.
We presently operate upon the conceit that our times are unprecedented. It is all too tempting today to say that 21st century America has gone too far down the path of ideological division and uncivil discourse to be knitted together again. It is tempting also to believe that the 60's and 70's were the halcyon days of the resurgent post war America. But as anyone who lived through those decades will tell you, many worried then that America had already gone over a cliff. The paradigm of American Society was facing upheaval: riots, racial strife, war, conservative backlash.
All of this brought me back to Barbara Jordan's 1976 keynote speech at the DNC. I urge you to read the transcript of her speech. It tells me that the problems we have today have been long term problems, which this country has struggled with. It also tells me that the power to change things is not in the White House or a blog, but the ACTIVE participation of the people.
here is the transcript.