I am reminded again and again of how challenging it is for us as people to keep our eye focused on what, in truth, we know to be our most existential issues.
We have a habit of “kicking the can down the road” on issues that, mistakenly, seem distant and remote. Or issues that while recognizing their importance, we see as overwhelming and beyond our ability to resolve or even improve.
I was reminded of this sobering reality the other morning as I read a New York Times article disclosing a recent Sienna poll which revealed that only 1% of U.S. voters regarded the environment as their top priority concern; and even those under the age of 30, the number only increased to 3%. Like many others, the commitment to confront the environment has been diluted by concerns about inflation, crime, COVID, abortion, gun violence and the revealings of the January 6th Congressional Commission.
It has ever been thus. Our memories are short; our focus inevitably shifts to the short term, the immediate. To call the issues such as those I have cited "distractions" would be a disservice to their importance. But if they take our eye off the continued aggressive pursuit of the most existential issues, the world we all live in is going to be in deep trouble.
What are the most important existential issues? Each of us will have our own views. Mine include the environment, nuclear proliferation, systemic racism, enabling every child to grow up with the education and health they deserve and having the courage and wisdom to engage in creating win-win relationships and agreements with countries and individuals with whom we do not agree. Prominent in the last category today is creating a sustainable, peaceful, geo-political relationship between the U.S./West and China.
As we face up to the challenge of maintaining focus and consistent action against the most existential issues, we must at all cost not throw up our hands or engage in unrelenting lamenting.
We need to recognize that the most important existential issues have always required consistent, long-term action by people who believed in change and who were willing to persist and even risk their lives to pursue it. Take the existential issue of slavery. Abolitionists fought that not for months or years but for decades to eradicate it. They did not give up. Don't forget. In the late 18th Century, slavery was a legal institution in every country of the Americas.
A century later is was outlawed in very country except Brazil
Yet, even now, despite all the progress, vestiges of slavery remain. Discrimination based on race and color and systemic racism remains. We cannot give up of the fight for racial equality of opportunity. This is why I and my wife and countless others have been committed to the Mission of the National Underground Railroad Freedom Center for 25 years.
The existential issues of women's rights (including the right to vote), of recognizing the rights of LGBTQ women and men, and of recognizing the dignity of all people, regardless of their race, gender, education, social class or religion are all ones on which we have made progress-- thanks to brave leadership and to no small amount of good will.
However, they remain with us. We have much more to do.
In truth, most of the existential issues I’ve cited don't lend themselves to a permanent solution. There won’t be any end to the need to address climate change as best we understand it and learn how to best confront it. There won’t be a permanent solution to giving everyone the not only the right to vote but easy access to it. Many issues won’t only not be resolved in our lifetime, they won’t be solved for generations to come. But we cannot allow that to depress us or dilute our efforts to do better. It doesn’t mean we can’t make significant improvements. People have proved they can. Nor does it relieve us of the obligation to do all we can, in our space, and in our time, to advance that improvement in whatever way we can.
I keep coming back to the words of the Talmud: “We are not required to complete the task, but nor are we allowed to desist from pursuing it.” We must continue to do what we believe is right, conscious of the need to keep our minds and hearts open to one another and to new learning.
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