Day 124.

I want to very strongly recommend Washington’s Farewell by John Avlon, which I’m happily working my way through now. The book takes on the life and afterlife of Washington’s Farewell Address in 1796. One of the most important elements of the book is the reminder to avoid factions. Hyper-partisanship, and failing to recognize members of the political opposition as compatriots, is dangerous for the health of the country. I’ll write more on this, and on other ideas from the book, in the coming days.

Day 123.

I can’t say it any better than Zan Romanoff did here. This is what I’ve been wrestling with. The reminder of the feat we’ve struggled for years with as a community. What we’ve tried to be bigger than, but which now we must face. And that doing so, facing this, is our humanity.

Day 122.

I was sick today so I didn’t do much. Commiserated with friends about the bomb threats that continue, and the president who pays no more than lip service to it despite calls from people around the country, not to mention every member of the United States Senate.

Of all the ways we have to fight to keep a new normal from taking hold, the most important battleground is our own mind. These persecutions are not to be shrugged off. They’re wrong and we have to stand against them together.

Day 120.

I’m sharing the donation page of Kathryn Allen here. She was considering a run against Jason Chaffetz in Utah’s 3rd Congressional District. She’s a physician and a Democrat.

Based on the support she’s gotten she’s decided to run against him in 2018.

Day 119.

I just set aside my work for today.

I have a lot of thoughts about what’s been happening. To members of my own community and to those outside it. I’ve been thinking about how we respond.

I’m thinking about Letter from a Birmingham Jail. Again.

I must make two honest confessions to you, my Christian and Jewish brothers. First, I must confess that over the past few years I have been gravely disappointed with the white moderate. I have almost reached the regrettable conclusion that the Negro’s great stumbling block in his stride toward freedom is not the White Citizen’s Counciler or the Ku Klux Klanner, 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 says: “I agree with you in the goal you seek, but I cannot agree with your methods of direct action”; who paternalistically believes he can set the timetable for another man’s freedom; who lives by a mythical concept of time and who constantly advises the Negro to wait for a “more convenient season.” Shallow understanding from people of good will is more frustrating than absolute misunderstanding from people of ill will. Lukewarm acceptance is much more bewildering than outright rejection.

I had hoped that the white moderate would understand that law and order exist for the purpose of establishing justice and that when they fail in this purpose they become the dangerously structured dams that block the flow of social progress. I had hoped that the white moderate would understand that the present tension in the South is a necessary phase of the transition from an obnoxious negative peace, in which the Negro passively accepted his unjust plight, to a substantive and positive peace, in which all men will respect the dignity and worth of human personality. Actually, we who engage in nonviolent direct action are not the creators of tension. We merely bring to the surface the hidden tension that is already alive. We bring it out in the open, where it can be seen and dealt with. Like a boil that can never be cured so long as it is covered up but must be opened with all its ugliness to the natural medicines of air and light, injustice must be exposed, with all the tension its exposure creates, to the light of human conscience and the air of national opinion before it can be cured.

Day 117.

I wasn’t feeling well today so I didn’t do much.

Going to say one thing though. I know someone tweeted a lot yesterday. That is not important. That was a distraction. Just a quick reminder.

Day 116.

Finally saw “I am Not Your Negro” today. Absolutely brilliant filmmaking about one of the sharpest thinkers we have ever been lucky enough to have. Strong and thought provoking work about love and truth in America. See it.