With Memorial Day upon us, and no clear end in sight to the global pandemic, America finds itself facing numerous existential decisions that will shape its future. Our future.
As we straddle the razor’s edge between optimism, growth & transformation, and cynicism, stagnation & entropy, the story of Hershel comes to mind.
Hershel was a devout man of God and a pure soul who lived his life according to the good book.
When the storm came, he was confident – no, he KNEW – that he would be kept safe.
Because he’d led a good life, God would take care of him. God would protect him.
When the torrential rains and gale force winds hit, one of his neighbors implored Hershel to leave with them before things got really bad.
“No, no, no. I’ve lived a good life," said Hershel. "God will take care of me. God will protect me.”
When the flooding waters swallowed up his neighborhood, a passerby on a boat begged Hershel to get out with him now.
“No, no, no. I’ve lived a good life. God will take care of me. God will protect me.”
Soon, the only thing standing between Hershel and certain death was that the roof of his home remained slightly above water.
By the time that the helicopter spotted Hershel, the waters had risen further, and his head was the only part of his body not fully submerged.
“Hershel. Hershel. Please, take my hand, or you perish,” implored the helicopter pilot.
Undaunted, Hershel said, “No, no, no. I’ve lived a good life. God will take care of me. God will protect me.”
But, those were to be his last words.
Because nature would not be denied, Hershel did die.
Having lived a good and pious life, Hershel went directly to heaven.
But, Hershel was bugged, hurt and confused.
“Father,” he said to God. “I don’t understand. I’ve lived a good life. I prayed everyday, I read the Talmud, and always did right by others.”
“I thought you’d take care of me, God. I thought you’d protect me.”
But, it was God now who was undaunted.
“Hershel, what are you talking about. I sent you a neighbor, a boat AND a helicopter to rescue you. What more did you expect?"
God then reminded Hershel that "God helps those who help themselves.”
We’ve Become a Nation Full of Hershels
As we ponder this point in time, it helps to take a moment to think about what Memorial Day is about.
It helps to look back to the generation called the Greatest Generation.
The Greatest Generation came of age during the Great Depression, a global economic collapse that lasted a decade.
Yet, when called upon to save the world from the horror of Hitler and the Nazis, America's Greatest Generation put their collective cards to the center of the table, and dedicated their lives to winning World War II.
They endured years of rationing, large swaths of the economy being re-directed to support the American War Effort, and four hundred thousand would sacrifice their lives for a battle greater than themselves. Talk about backbone and shared sacrifice.
Contrast this narrative with the sad, pathetic whiners who call anyone “Hitler” who stands in the way of their “rights” to get a haircut, and get one now.
These are the same people that threaten lawsuits and WAR when asked to wear a mask before entering a store because their “rights” supersede science and shared sacrifice.
Compared to the Greatest Generation, we are a nation of Dwarfs when we could be Giants.
We’ve become like Hershel. The hard facts are staring us in the face, yet the notion of sacrifice has in itself become anti-American.
Thus, we are ripe for the aphorisms of false prophets whose only god is profits, be they our clergy, Fox News, the GOP, or the most godless one of all, Donald Trump, a serial liar and cheat who implores us to stick out heads (rational thought) in the ground because God will take care of us, God will protect us.
After all, how many times has Trump stated emphatically that, “I alone can fix it.”
Let us be clear, though. It is only our vanity to AVOID sacrifice, our lack of reason, and our elevation of financial wealth as our true god that makes us ripe for such false idols.
But, know this. God is protecting us and has been for years, first by revealing the hard science and observable truths behind Climate Change, and giving us decades of advance warning.
Sadly, that was not tangible enough for the Hershels among us, so now we face not only the COVID-19 pandemic, but the global financial crisis it has fostered, and we see firsthand how quickly and devastatingly our way of life can fall apart.
In less than ninety days, we’ve gone from zero to 100K deaths in the US, with over a thousand people dying every day.
And yet, scenes like this are legion.
“What Have You Got to Lose?”
We face a moment of truth as a nation. Just as the years of disregarding the science of Climate Change foretold the existential risk we’re facing now, so too does our ease of looking the other way as our institutions, rule of law and the very notion of a UNITED states was under attack.
I get it. The very real wanting for institutional change lead to a Trump victory, and give Trump credit. He speaks to people’s hearts and understands the power of engagement politics.
But that should not obscure the fact that Trump has proven to be an incredibly inept leader, averse to planning or process, a malignant narcissist with zero self-awareness of his limitations and even less humanity when it comes to thinking about others.
When Candidate Trump was running for President, one of his common arguments was, “What have you got to lose (by voting for me)?”
The subtext of such an assertion was that Trump couldn’t possibly be worse than Obama, Hillary, or any of the Republicans that ran against him.
When he started calling them nasty names, “Crooked Hillary,” “Fake Birth Certificate,” “Low Energy, Jeb,” that was just Trump being Trump, as opposed to the markings of an unstable lunatic.
As it has become obvious that his response to the pandemic has been a disaster, his strategy, like all things Trump, has been a combination of vindictiveness, cover-up, resistance to accountability, and attacking the messenger.
On this Memorial Day, with so many Americans seemingly incapable of sustained sacrifice, we must remember that even Hershel had his day of reckoning for not owning the essential truths of personal responsibility.
On Memorial Day, we must also remember that Trump is a Draft Dodger who knowingly, willfully canceled the deployment of the National Guard literally ONE DAY before they were due to receive benefits.
That’s cold, inhuman and hostile to our armed forces, doubly so as it’s intentionally done in the middle of a pandemic.
We must remember the malevolence of Trump’s recent threat to withhold medical funding to Michigan if the state government didn’t back down on mail in ballots.
“What have you got to lose?”
In a word, everything.
This is our Hershel Moment. It’s time to step up, and remember that God protects those who protect themselves.
