Summer of 2014: Serious Challenges Confront Us All

Submitted by Andrea Perrault

As mid-August approached, I set out to reflect on what had happened in the world since we last met in June. My article for the September newsletter focused on the many international and domestic challenges that dominated the news and that seemed to turn back the clock to earlier times. In some cases, issues re-emerged that many of us may have thought were resolved long ago. However, as August continued, social challenges increased to crisis proportions. Reconsideration of the summer of 2014 was clearly in order. The explosion of racial unrest spurred by a disastrous police action against Michael Brown in Ferguson, MO, and the senseless beheading of James Foley by ISIS extremists jolted many of us out of our summer languor. The dog days of August haven’t been hot in a literal sense, but they have been explosively hot in terms of the social upheaval they seem to portend.

In media coverage of the events in Ferguson, leaders in the black community emphasized the fact that the social reality in Ferguson is not isolated to one community, but that it exists everywhere in the U.S.. During his visit to Ferguson, Eric Holder described how he had been profiled in Washington, D.C., and many other black leaders shared similar stories. Discussions often harkened back to Cambridge MA several summers ago when Henry Louis Gates was confronted by a city officer, leading to a nationally publicized incident that President Obama eventually stepped in to mediate.  Our first Sunday program that year addressed the issue, with the Executive Director of the MA chapter of the ACLU as our opening speaker. Our Society must be as committed in our programming this year and address how to combat racism in society. It will be necessary, however, to engage in clear positive actions, as well as discussions, that support our beliefs.

In Jesse Jackson’s visit to Ferguson, he appealed to residents to use the voting booth to bring representation of the black community prominently into the city’s official public sphere.(In Ferguson, two-thirds of the population is black, yet among its 95 police officers, only three are African-American. In the last local election, only 12% of the registered voters bothered to vote, and statistics were bleaker in the black community). Perhaps voter education and mobilization are activities in which ESB members can participate. Last year, we joined efforts organized by MassVote to address antiquated and repressive voting rights laws in Massachusetts. The legislature heard the outcry from our united groups and swiftly voted to adopt reforms. We should continue such work. Following reform of voting rights and registering people to vote, the greatest challenge is to ensure that people actually do vote.

The brutal execution of James Foley has put international issues back on the front burner, and the horror of such acts that happen so far away may make us feel helpless. Currently, the country seems to be in a quagmire, with a President who is shut out of traditional policy development efforts by Congress’ inability to allow him to govern. While debates rage on about the role the U.S. should play on the world stage, official U.S. foreign policy seems ineffective and bankrupt. We must be vigilant in keeping international issues among the central concerns of all in our society; isolationism is not a viable response. Yet again, voting may be our best strategy for addressing concerns about international issues as well. Voting against the tide of isolationism is in all our best interests. In considering the ineffectiveness of Congress, one can see that in terms of representative democracy, we all may be living in Ferguson. By working with other groups to mobilize the population to vote, perhaps we can make a significant difference by changing the composition of our national leadership.

Can we in the Ethical Society of Boston both reflect on current events and mobilize our members and friends into such constructive actions? Hopefully, in every community where Ethical Society members live, each of us will seek opportunities to work to increase voter turnout, and disseminate information about candidates and issues. If each one of us contributes on a local level, we can document our members’ efforts and determine our collective impact. In what local actions might we participate, both individually and as a Society? Clearly, current events seem to require collaboration among many like-minded groups so that overwhelming mass concern will be clearly and visibly demonstrated. Only then will we spur much needed action among our political leaders, as we did through last year’s MassVote effort. The existence of the Humanist Hub can be an important factor in facilitating collective action among Boston area humanists. We in the Ethical Society of Boston need to communicate our interest in building such collaboration for positive social change. By doing so, we will be honoring our history of social activism.

Let’s organize now as members of the Ethical Society of Boston and as part of the larger humanist community for greater voter participation to build a democracy where we all are represented. Perhaps that would be a fitting legacy for both Michael Brown and James Foley.