How Long, Oh Lord? How Long?

Sometimes I’m overcome with a since of futility when I am reminded of just how long so many have been fighting the good fight in my home, America. It is undoubtedly the arrogance of youth that inclines a man to believe that the struggle must have just begun in earnest with his rising awareness of it. But as naive as it is for one to think that he has stumble upon a way of thinking or seeing or acting that will make all the difference, what other hope could inspire us to fight on when confronted with the brilliance and tenacity and courage with which so many more gifted than ourselves gave blood, sweat and tears with little substantive gain?

Hear now the irrefutable genius of Emma Goldman as she, in 1908, deconstructs the lie of patriotism. Goldman was neither the first nor the the last to hold a mirror up so that America could better see herself warts and all. Despite Goldman and many others’ best efforts, American patriotism–as celebrated today more than any other–is still the rallying cry and justification for all manner of evil in the world. How long, oh Lord? How long?

Sandra Oh reads Emma Goldman, “Patriotism: A Menace to Liberty” (1908) from Voices of a People's History on Vimeo.

The 4th of July can only be a day of lament for me. Particularly amid the disorienting reawakening of my call to ministry. I want to give myself wholly again to the struggle for all things true, just and beautiful, but my emotions about it right now are chaotic.

These songs are helping me make emotional sense of it all.