I use this blog as a place to check in and check out what is going on of significance.

That I am posting entirely Alan Grayson's blog today without further comment means that I am totally endorsing the contents of his blogpost.  I find it a useful reminder for all of us.  Besides, I like his standard salutary closing:  Courage!

-- Michael Anthony Joseph Ceurvorst, henceforth in this blog "majc" pronounced "magic", fittingly ironic, because I credit science and hard work over lies and fictitious wishes.

Enjoy the blog-cum-retrospective below:

Dear Michael Anthony,

These seem like desperate times, because they are.  A dangerous fool has taken a four-year lease on the White House.  Dirty Money and gerrymandering have given the Party of Corporate Tools commanding control of both the House and the Senate.  The Supreme Court is dominated by right-wing shills who think that the rich and multinational corporations don’t have enough “rights,” and they intend to solve that problem.

And we just lost a House race pitting our singer in a cowboy hat against their Lord Voldemort lookalike who body-slammed a reporter on the night before the election.

So, no, we don’t live in Utopia, Paradise, Shangri-la, Eden, Wonderland, Heaven or Cloud Nine.  For God’s sake, I wouldn’t even call this Cloud Six.

But be patient.  As Martin Luther King, Jr., put it, “the arc of the moral universe is long, but it bends toward justice.”

Many of the great progressive ideas that came to fruition in the 20^thcentury had their roots in the 19^th century.  The great progressives of that earlier era promoted the ideals of fairness, opportunity and equality, against a recalcitrant conservative power structure.

Larger-than-life Progressives like Theodore Roosevelt, “Fighting Bob” LaFollette, William Jennings Bryant, Eugene Debs, Upton Sinclair and Woodie Guthrie fertilized the political ground from which sprang women’s rights, the 40-hour work week, child labor laws, the right to organize, a progressive income tax, near-universal healthcare, social security, protection of the environment and civil rights.

In our own time, racial and gender equality have made enormous strides, we’ve had breakthroughs on marriage equality and ending marijuana prohibition, and we’ve taken some baby steps to redress global warming and climate disruption.

These lofty goals were not accomplished overnight.  It took generations of fighting for what was right, on the field of political battle, to accomplish real progress.  The victories of progressives were mixed with many losses.  “Two steps forward, one step back.”  For sure, many great political leaders, always promoting The Cause, won some elections and lost some elections.  But the good ones never gave up.

Not long ago, a political consultant asked me why I write my own emails, and bother to incorporate ideas, principles, metaphors, history, literary and cultural references, figures of speech, and the occasional joke.  Why bother?

I told him that I belong to a group of people who are politically aware and intelligent, and we place our faith in working together to promote justice, equality, compassion and peace.  I don’t have to dumb it down for you.  We’re on the same page.  I “get it,” and so do you.

We progressives have an essential mission, a cause that can withstand the changing winds of political fortune.  For me, for you, for us, it’s the cause that counts, not personal political victories.

What benefit can an elected official have to ‘We, The People,” unless he or she is motivated by – and committed to -- the progressive ideal that everyone should reach his or her full potential, unchained by hunger, racism, poverty, prejudice, ignorance, or poor health?

My loss in my US Senate race last year was no more than a personal bump in the road.  I still have a voice, and I will raise it in support of our shared beliefs and goals.  I will continue our battles for justice, equality, compassion and peace.  Maybe we will enjoy the sweet taste of victory, or maybe that joy will fall to our children.  But we will prevail.  Together, we will prevail.

Courage,

Alan Grayson

"I still believe, in spite of everything, that people are still truly good at heart."

- The Diary of Anne Frank (1944).