A Tale of Two Cities

HS #59 2020.6.11

A Tale of Two Cities

“It was the best of times, it was the worst of times. It was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness, it was the epoch of belief, it was the epoch of incredulity . . . “

These lines of Charles Dickens ring true.  Did anyone else, upon hearing of the arrest of the other three Minneapolis police officers, have the acerbic thought that hopefully now we can leave this bad news behind and get back to the corona virus? 

Of course, that’s just the problem. We shouldn’t leave “this bad news” behind us.        

Since I’m quoting great literature, here’s Yeats: “Things fall apart; The centre cannot hold; Mere anarchy is loosed upon the world.  The best lack all conviction, while the worst are full of passionate intensity.” Regular readers of my column may recognize the phrase, “Things fall apart.” It is the title of the award-winning book by African author Chinua Achebe that was the focus of last month’s column.  

 “The best lack all conviction.” This phrase reveals the commonality between the two trials in which we currently find ourselves. 

What makes the corona virus so destructive? Ironically, it is the very fact that it is not so destructive. A person can carry this virus for days before the symptoms begin to emerge. Moreover, a large portion of our population gets no symptoms at all, yet can readily pass it on.  That is, instead of having just two distinct populations of the healthy and the symptomatic, there is a third group – the enablers - which is part of the problem even though they don’t appear to be. Indeed, it is those comfortable ones in the middle which pose the real threat. 

Martin Luther King had a similar thought.  In his Letter from a Birmingham Jail, King penned, “The Negro’s great stumbling block is not the KKK, but the white moderate, who is more devoted to “order” than to justice – who prefers a negative peace which is the absence of tension to a positive peace which is the presence of justice – who constantly advises the Negro to wait for a ‘more convenient season.’”  

As with corona, the dangerous ones are those invisible in the middle – the lukewarm. It’s not the “worst filled with passionate intensity” who are the real problem. The “Derek Chauvins” of this world will always exist. It’s that “the best lack all conviction.”

When I read George Orwell’s “Animal Farm” in high school, my teacher asked who was responsible for the evil that happened. The quick easy answer was Napoleon, the tyrant pig. But through Socratic questioning, our teacher pulled the true answer from us. It was perhaps Boxer, the Horse. Boxer represented the silent masses who passively allowed the evil to go unchallenged.

King gave another famous address – here in Michigan – at Grosse Point High School, in the affluent 92%-white suburb of Detroit. The title of his speech was “The Other America” which he began by explaining that “this country has this kind of dualism, this schizophrenia, so every city ends up being two cities rather than one.”

 Continuing, he spoke of “our cities going up in flames.” While condemning riots, he challenged the white audience that “a riot is the language of the unheard. And what is it America has failed to hear? It has failed to hear that the promises of freedom and justice have not been met. And it has failed to hear that large segments of white society are more concerned about tranquility and the status quo than about justice and humanity.”

Will it be different this time? Do the best still lack all conviction? There are signs of hope. We are getting glimpses of the best of times. Tens of thousands – blacks and whites together –  marching in peaceful protest and solidarity. Thousands more – blacks and whites together –  cleaning up the destruction of the vandals and looters. White police officers kneeling in solidarity with protesters. Many trying to empathize (while acknowledging the impossibility) with blacks – black men especially – who felt their faces ground into the pavement, felt their  throats pressed shut, felt their life slowly ebb. Can we embrace the words, “We are one nation, and their pain is our pain, their dreams are our dreams, we share one nation, one home and one glorious destiny.” Is this dream impossible? Dare we hope? Dare we continue the fight? Don Quixote gives answer, “To change the world, my friend, Sancho, is not madness nor utopia. It’s justice.”