May you all have a raucous (or contemplative) New Year’s Eve observance, and a Happier (and eventually COVID-free) New Year!
The year 2020 will be remembered as long as we live, and beyond, as the time cruel plague threatened our lives, and cruel authoritarianism threatened our 250-year-old democracy. The worse-than-inept handling of the pandemic helped end this latest attack on our founding principles. Bill Moyers, in his Essay on Watergate. concluded “They (Nixon and his enablers) almost succeeded.” I think we can say that Mr. Trump and his enablers also came very close. A second term might have completed the ruination of our democratic institutions. And we are not safe from more attacks. It should give us pause that 70 million of our fellow citizens wanted four more years of increasing authoritarianism. If a slicker, higher-class, less odious demagogue rises, she or he has supporters and thugs at the ready, waiting, standing by. We see that there will be no shortage of Americans eager to staff concentration camps. Defenders of democracy can no longer take our core principles for granted as unassailably secure. The Grand Old Party has lost all of its grandeur.
I have said before in this space that we cannot ignore the causes of the fierce and desperate resentments that brought us to the edge of losing our freedoms. That is not an exaggeration. We must give those people respectable work, and hope for the future. Dismissing them as ‘deplorables’ is deplorable. and self-destructive.
On Tuesday and Wednesday next week we will witness the brutal authoritarians struttin’ their stuff in the Capitol and elsewhere. Let’s give those guys and everyone who needs work a good-paying infrastructure and Green jobs employment as soon as possible.
Finally, here is a New Year’s greeting from Anthony Hopkins that has gone viral:
Rev. Leland Bond-Upson
One Comment
Linda Porter
My name is Linda Porter and I would like to send New Year greetings to you and to the members of UUCE. My husband Jim and I were members at UUCE for almost 20 years when Dan Brosier was minister and we had roles of leadership during that time. I was also on staff for four years before we moved to Danville, Kentucky. (We came back home to Kentucky after retiring and are once again members of the UU Church of Lexington). We still receive the newsletter and keep up with what is happening at UUCE. I would like to thank you for all you have done to help the church re-build after some difficult years. Of course, the last year has been hard for everyone and we think of you all often. The church, its members, building and grounds are still very special to us and we wish you all the best in 2021.