Dark Night – Photo: L. Weikel

Dark Night

I’m actually being quite literal here. The photo above was taken on our brisk walk around our 2.2 mile loop just this evening. With the wind moaning through the treetops as we made our way along our path, I was reminded why I wear Turtlefur neck warmers and vowed to dig them out of the closet.

This dark night, though, was the perfect ending to a depressingly dark day, as well.

Of course, I’m speaking of the unexpected and untimely death of Representative Elijah Cummings very early this morning. (Follow that link – it’s to an obituary that’s much different than most I’ve read.)

I’ve felt the loss on a visceral level all day. Since hearing the news, I’ve been reflecting on what it was about the Congressman that renders our country’s loss of this man so tragic, especially right now. The answer is integrity. The answer is passion for what is right. The answer is being willing to stand up and call out bullshit.

Our Country’s Still So Young

To be honest, I was shocked to realize Representative Cummings was the son of a sharecropper. He was only eight years older than I am – and his father was a sharecropper? That’s stunning.

For me, I guess, it’s the realization that slavery and sharecropping are such recent conditions of control maintained in our country. I want to think of them as long-ago ‘history’ – as shameful relics of an extremely unenlightened time. But that’s wishful and utterly naïve.

On the other hand, deep down I feel a concomitant celebration, deep in my heart, that a sharecropper’s son could grow up to become Chairman of the House Committee on Oversight and Reform.

That is the American Dream I believe in.

Upholding Justice, Truth, and Integrity

Whenever I heard him speak, I was moved by Representative Cummings’s commitment to justice and truth. It was obvious that witnessing the degradation and abuse of our country and its systems, including the system of checks and balances which has been a hallmark of our democracy, and the daily mockery of the gravitas, power, and honor of the presidency, was literally causing him pain and distress.

Indeed, from what I can tell, it literally broke his heart.

Today was a dark day indeed.

Yet we are approaching the time when the veils are thinnest. Perhaps, in his own way, Congressman Cummings knew he would and could find ways – from the other side –  to be an even more effective champion for what’s right and good in the world. He was formidable here; imagine what he may accomplish from there.

(T-771)