Fierce Kindness
In a too-tired world, the death of David Amess, a married father of five who was stabbed to death in Belfairs Methodist Church, serves as a call to reflection for the people of a nation that never knew him.
Amess, a 69-year-old Member of Parliament, was stabbed to death during a “surgery” at the church. Parliamentary “surgeries” are “one-on-one” meetings Members of Parliament hold with constituents to give people an opportunity to meet them and discuss matters of concern; they are usually held once a week and locally advertised.
Tributes left near the scene of the murder described the MP as “kind and thoughtful” and “such a gentleman.” Anglican Archbishop of Canterbury Justin Welby called the news “agonizingly painful.” Archbishop Vincent Nichols, leader of the Roman Catholic Church of England and Wales, said Sir David “carried out his vocation… in public life with generosity and integrity.”
Speaking of the man who served in Parliament for thirty-eight years, one of his constituents, who arrived at the Methodist church minutes after the stabbing, called him “one of the great ones, he made sense of a crazy world."
Within hours of Sir David’s death, Father Jeff Woolnough of the nearby St. Peter’s Church told BBC, “Sir David was a great, great man… a friend to all. He’s died doing that; that’s the remarkable thing. He’s died serving the people.” At a memorial Mass that same evening, Father Woolnough asked, “Have you ever known Sir David Amess without that happy smile on his face. He carried the great east London spirit of having no fear and being able to talk to people and the level they’re at. Not all politicians, I would say, are good at that.”
British Prime Minister Boris Johnson honored “one of the kindest, nicest, most gentle people in politics… a fine public servant and a much-loved friend and colleague.”
“Kind and thoughtful.”
“Such a gentleman.”
“A great, great man…. A friend to all.”
“Having no fear and… able to talk to people and the level they’re at…
“A man who believed passionately in this country and its future…”
Carrying out one’s “vocation… in public life with generosity and integrity,” to “be a friend to all… serving the people” and “one of the kindest, nicest, most gentle people.” These are descriptions of tens and hundreds of thousands of Americans serving in every branch of the military; enforcing water and air quality regulations in the EPA; laboring over microscopes and analyzing reams of data in order to control Ebola and malaria and COVID-19 outbreaks around the world at the CDC; and lawyers, accountants and investigators prosecuting white collar criminals who happen to be Ivy League graduates and fentanyl importers and dealers from the best and the worst of America’s neighborhoods.
They are long-distance truck drivers and grocery store and warehouse workers who have shown-up to stock shelves and check out customers every day since the onset of a pandemic; they are school janitors and maintenance workers, guidance counselors and teachers who – in person and remotely - have struggled for almost two years to help students stay up-to-date; they are elections workers who – in the midst of the same pandemic – managed to carry out fair, save and honest elections.
They are the Americans whose souls are wounded and hearts broken by self-serving politicians and television commentators attacking the non-existent “dark state” that keeps America and the world safe. They are us – exhausted by the most ugliness since the April 12, 1861 attack on Fort Sumpter pitted brother against brother and divided the nation.
One can almost imagine a 2021 version of the Gospel of John’s account of the trial of Jesus:
The politician asked the Suffering Servant, “Do you refuse to overturn the election or order a recount and find 12,000 ‘missing’ votes for the man in the White House has demanded, or say that the epidemic is under control? Do you refuse to say the election was stolen? Do you not know that I have the power to raise mobs of angry protesters against you and to destroy your reputation and financial security?”
And the Servant said, “You would have no power over Me if it were not given to you from above. Therefore, the one who handed me over to you is guilty of greater sin.” From then on the kowtowing politician considered doing what was right and just but the crowds kept shouting, “If you say the election was fair and honest, if you say the virus is out of control, if you demand vaccinations and quarantines, you are no friend of Donald. Anyone who declares the election honest is defying Donald.” And the cowardly politician, like Judas, slipped into silent acquiescence.
In the contemporary Gospel of Matthew, we might read:
Someone asked Jesus, “Teacher, what shall I do so that I might obtain eternal life?” And Jesus said to him, “If you want to enter eternal life, be a faithful servant to others, be honest and dedicated to the good of all. Be kind and thoughtful, a friend to all, have no fear, believe passionately. Do not accept money in return for your votes, serve the broken-hearted and the Little People, feed the hungry and give drink to the thirsty and be a peacemaker for all nations…” But, when the politician, who aspired for higher office or to win the next election, heard these things he went away disdainfully because he had an Ivy League education and a law degree and was called ‘Senator” or ‘Congressman.’”
Every since the June 16, 2016 insanely vitriolic “othering” of immigrants as “not the right people… people that have lots of problems,.. They’re bringing drugs,… crime… rapists….” and the unspeakably, blindly xenophobic attacks on Muslims – before a hired throng of pretend fans who were paid fifty bucks apiece – our national energy has been drained. And drained again by the initial failure to respond to what became a worldwide pandemic and the meaningless, ignorantly unscientific or science-denying assurances “It’s going to disappear.” – at least thirty-eight such public declarations between February and October 10, 2020, when the COVID-19 patient-in-chief returned to the White house after his hospitalization at Walter Reed.
As a nation, as people of Faith and no faith, our souls have been drained by lying politicians and hangers-on; by the cowardice of those like the senior senator from Florida who began cancelling townhall meetings with his constituents because they “heckle and scream at me in front of cameras.” Our spirits are stomped on by feckless vassals who insist on wasting millions of dollars that might be paid to teachers or nurses or needed mental health workers but instead go to unqualified, incompetent “cyber ninjas” for recount after losing recount because… Well, just because the loser refuses to concede.
As a People who dare to “hold these truths to be self-evident: that all men are created equal; that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights; that among these are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness,” we suffer the challenge to these most fundamental beliefs every time timorous legislators rewrite state voting laws to limit early voting or discriminate against minority groups or gerrymander districts because they serve only their own interests – not the self-evident truth that “all men are created equal.”
Our national intelligence and sense of grace and respect are insulted by bombastic dolts like Florida’s Governor “I wanna be president and I’ll do anything to appease the man who lost the presidential popular vote twice.” Wanna-Be Mini-Me Governor DeSantis’ newly appointed (but not yet confirmed) Surgeon General Dr. Joseph Lapado was unceremoniously ordered out of the office of State Senator Tina Polsky because the hydroxychloroquine-touter refused to don a protective face mask. The Senator, diagnosed with Stage 1 breast cancer, was scheduled to begin radiation therapy the following week. “Sometimes I try to reason with unreasonable people for fun,” the doctor quipped. [Guess it just proves Harvard doesn’t always admit “the best and brightest.”]
As a People, our sense of patriotism is crushed by feckless candidates who, like Ohio senatorial candidate J.D. Vance admits he must “suck it up” and support the former president despite personal misgivings – “I’m not a flip-flopper, I’m a flip-flopper on Trump.” [A distinction without a difference.]
As a People who draw their blood and being from every nation, culture, language and religion on Earth, we are diminished by gun-toting, tiki torch bearers glorifying “the lost cause” of an army of traitors by waving their flags and shouting “Jews will not replace us” or invading the United States Capitol screaming “Hang Mike Pence.”
By God’s grace, there have been acts of heroism:
Lt. Col. Alexander Vindman, whose parents fled the former Soviet Union when he and his twin, Yvegeny, were three years old, whose “father worked multiple jobs to support us, all the while learning English at night,” who earned a Purple Heart after being wounded in Iraq in 2004 and whose whistle blowing resulted in the first of two impeachments of a president of the United States, who ended his testimony before Congress with the words: “Dad,… Don’t worry, I will be fine for telling the truth.”
Former Ambassador Marie Yovanoviitch, who made enemies in Ukraine while representing the interests of the People of the United States, and dared to speak the truth about the former president’s henchmen.
Georgia Governor Brad Raffensperger, who repeatedly rejected the illegal demand "What I want to do is this. I just want to find 11,780 votes, which is one more than [the 11,779 vote margin of defeat] we have, because we won the state."
School board and local and state election board members and election supervisors and workers – paid and unpaid – who brave the bullies and terrorists to continue to assure fair elections and teach history and require masks and distancing to protect our children, especially the immunocompromised and physically challenged.
In 1998, historian and political commentator Tom Brokow hailed The Greatest Generation; almost four years ago author Will Adams outlined six traits of the generation that saved the world:
Personal responsibility
Integrity
Humility
A work ethic that viewed work as a means to survival
Financial prudence
Faithful commitment
If we are to have a nation worthy of gifting to the next generation, these – like the kindness of David Amess – are the values of leadership and service to which we are entitled and which we must demand of leadership at every level.
As a Nation, as a People, too many of us are too tired; our souls have been drained by the cowardice of leadership; our national intelligence, sense of grace and respect, our patriotism have been too-long insulted and crushed by feckless politicians; and our shared national blood – the blood of generations of immigrants with all of their cultures, languages and religions - has been drained.
With the Psalmist, we cry “How long, O Lord? How long? And, like the disciples of Jesus, we need to hear the gentle words “Come away and rest a while.”
To rest and pray… That like the friends of the Suffering Servant we might, once again, “Go forth….”
And, in our exhaustion, we might give life to the words of itinerant preacher and chaplain Laura Jean Truman
God, keep my anger from becoming meanness.
Keep my sorrow from collapsing into self-pity.
Keep my heart soft enough to keep breaking.
Keep my anger turned toward justice, not cruelty.
Remind me that all of this, every bit of it, is for love.
Keep me fiercely kind.