This July 4th, let’s recommit to our Republic.
Did you know that each stripe of our flag represents one of the original 13 colonies? While there’s no canonical order, I like to think Georgia is the fourth from the top (the second white stripe) because ours was the fourth state to join the union, on Wednesday, January 2, 1788—236 years ago. Photo by Tim Mossholder on Unsplash
I’ve tried to spend most of this week focused on spending time with my kids. The oldest recently graduated high school and there’s no telling how long we’ll stay a family all under one roof. As anyone who’s been on this particular threshold might tell you, it’s an emotionally charged one.
But this hasn't been an easy week. The economy remains bleak for middle-class professionals—of which Ellie and I both count ourselves. And last week’s discouraging presidential debate now seems but a poor prelude to this week’s news from the Supreme Court, eroding the rule of reason in the courts and rule of law in the Oval Office.
In both cases—the aging of children and the erosion of the Republic—this is no sudden change. Rather, it’s the long weathering action of time and cruel purpose.
Ours is a Republic (which I purposefully capitalize, to reinforce the Platonic conceit) founded on enlightenment ideals slowly realized. We still have a long way to go and we don’t share a map for the future, but there are a few things we all agree upon:
More than 80% of Americans—across regions, political outlooks, the partisan divide, gender, race, ethnicity, and age—believe in the core American values of equality, liberty and progress (Sienna College).
And 70% of us—from all political persuasions—agree that no President should have blanket immunity to operate above the law (The Hill).
But ours is also a Republic under attack. The “wolves of hate” aren’t only in DC. They’re here, too. Denying our neighbors healthcare, bodily autonomy, an honest education, reasonable wages, access to housing, and even the simple courtesy of listening to our needs.
But, as Ralph McGill, the late great editor of the Atlanta Constitution might remind us, “It is late. But there is yet time.”
On this Independence Day, we can do very much more than wave a flag or enjoy a parade—both of which I very much plan on doing, mind you! We can recommit ourselves to our Republic. To the idea of a government by the people, of the people, for the people with no fucking king in sight.
It is in that spirit, I’d like to share Ralph McGill’s Pulitzer-winning response to the 1958 bombing of The Temple in Atlanta. Dashed off in twenty inspired minutes, McGill holds up a distant mirror to our times, reminding us that we’ve faced down division and intimidation and cruelty before and we’ve come out stronger—no matter the forces arrayed against us.
A Church, A School.
By Ralph McGill, Editor
Atlanta Constitution
October 15, 1958
Dynamite in great quantity Sunday ripped a beautiful temple of worship in Atlanta. It followed hard on the heels of a like destruction of a handsome high school at Clinton, Tennessee.
The same rabid, mad-dog minds were, without question, behind both. They also are the source of previous bombings in Florida, Alabama and South Carolina. The school house and the church are the targets of diseased, hate-filled minds.
Let us face the facts.
This is a harvest. It is the crop of things sown.
It is the harvest of defiance of courts and the encouragement of citizens to defy law on the parts of many Southern politicians. It will be grimly humorous if certain state attorneys general issue statements of regret. And it will be quite a job for some editors, columnists and commentators, who have been saying that our courts have no jurisdiction and that the people should refuse to accept their authority, now to deplore.
It is not possible to preach lawlessness and restrict it.
To be sure, none said go bomb a Jewish temple or a school.
But let it be understood that when leadership in high places in any degree fails to support constituted authority, it opens the gates to all those who wish to take law in their hands.
There will be, to be sure, the customary act of the careful drawing aside of skirts on the part of those in high places.
“How awful,” they will exclaim. “How terrible. Something must be done.”
But the record stands. The extremists of the citizens’ councils, the political leaders who in terms violent and inflammatory have repudiated their oaths and stood against due process of law have helped unloose this flood of hate and bombing.
This, too, is a harvest of those so-called Christian ministers who have chosen to preach hate instead of compassion. Let them now find pious words and raise their hands in deploring the bombing of a synagogue.
You do not preach and encourage hatred for the Negro and hope to restrict it to that field. It is an old, old story. It is one repeated over and over again in history. When the wolves of hate are loosed on one people, then no one is safe.
Hate and lawlessness by those who lead release the yellow rats and encourage the crazed and neurotic who print and distribute the hate pamphlets, who shrieked that Franklin Roosevelt was a Jew; who denounced the Supreme Court as being Communist and controlled by Jewish influences.
This series of bombings is the harvest, too, of something else.
One of those connected with the bombing telephoned a news service early Sunday morning to say the job would be done. It was to be committed, he said, by the Confederate Underground.
The Confederacy and the men who led it are revered by millions. Its leaders returned to the Union and urged that the future be committed to build a stronger America. This was particularly true of General Robert E. Lee. Time after time he urged his students at Washington University to forget the War Between the States and to help build a greater and stronger union.
But for too many years now we have seen the Confederate flag and the emotions of that great war become the property of men not fit to tie the shoes of those who fought for it. Some of these have been merely childish and immature. Others have perverted and commercialize the flag by making the Stars and Bars, and the Confederacy itself, a symbol of hate and bombings.
For a long time now it has been needful for all Americans to stand up and be counted on the side of law and the due process of law even when to do so goes against personal beliefs and emotions. It is late. But there is yet time.
JD JORDAN FOR GEORGIA STATE SENATE DISTRICT 56
For anyone in East Cobb, Roswell, or Woodstock alarmed by the state’s escalating attacks on our bodies, our families, our doctors’ offices, our classrooms and libraries, even our polling places, I’m running for State Senate district 56 to fight for our freedoms and to deliver a better future for everyone in Georgia.
And unlike my opponent who’s spent 14 years rolling back our freedoms, failing to safeguard our kids, and gerrymandered his district to stay in office, I promise to bring everyone in the 56—regardless of ideology—the best possible constituent experience so you feel heard, valued, and supported. As we all deserve to be.
I’m running for the 56. Let’s make a better Georgia for all of us.
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FOR MORE INFORMATION, CONTACT
Jordan For Georgia, LLC
10800 Alpharetta Hwy Ste 208 #629
Roswell, GA 30076-1467
jdjordan@forthe56.com
706.804.0456
