Be inspired by social opportunities for healing in the community and the country

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Reverend Candace McKibben
| Guest columnist

Sitting in the courtroom last Monday morning with around 150 people waiting for instructions, I was struck by the diversity of the group and the importance of what had brought us together. There was a team of staff who made sure we found our way to the check-in desk and were aware of the location of the toilets, vending machines and the free hot drinks stand.

The presiding judge, Nina Ashenafi Richardson, made sure we understood how grateful she was that we responded to the jury summons, which many do not. She said that the jury badges we were required to wear would help the staff at the Leon County Courthouse support us in our attendance.

She gave us a passionate history lesson on the justice system, the concepts of presumption of innocence and the rule of law, and the important role a jury plays in our justice system. She thanked us again and spoke of the opportunity and responsibility we had to fulfill our civic duty.

Words of hope

In the wake of the shocking assassination attempt on former President Donald Trump at the Butler Farms Show Grounds in Butler, Pennsylvania, on July 13, 2024, many of us are looking inward and asking ourselves what our civic duty is to our nation during this time of crisis. While “thoughts and prayers” have been devalued as not enough, we know we can pray or send positive energy toward the healing of our nation.

If we are self-aware, we know that hope and positivity are the best attitudes to get through a personal crisis. Furthermore, researchers and wise men throughout the ages have learned how crucial hope and positivity are to the well-being of our business.

The temptation is to despair at the disbelief and sadness of where we stand as the divided states of America. And while we grieve and acknowledge the many feelings we have about our current situation, we want, as President Lincoln pleaded during another difficult time in our country, to listen to our better angels.

With barely time to process what had happened at Trump’s rally the night before, pastors across the country took to their pulpits on Sunday to address their congregations, eager to hear a word of hope.

From “The way of love, not the way of violence, is how we bind up the wounds of our nation. We condemn political violence in any form, and our calling as followers of Jesus of Nazareth is always to love,” (Bishop of the Episcopal Church, Michael Curry), to “We are in a war, and it is a spiritual one that, if we do not win, will turn into a very physical one. White evangelical Christians may have to resort to violence,” (Founder, Pastors for Trump, Jackson Lahmeyer) the messages were expansive. And that, of course, is part of the problem.

Finding the ‘moral center’

Political leaders were initially less verbose in their remarks, speaking with the raw truth and clarity that such life-changing moments bring.

President Biden implored, “While we disagree, we are not enemies, we are neighbors. Politics should never be a literal battlefield and, God forbid, a battlefield.” Republican House Speaker Mike Johnson said, “We have to tone down the rhetoric. We have to turn down the temperature in this country. We need leaders from all parties, on both sides, to address that and make sure that happens so that we can move forward and preserve our free society that we are all blessed with.”

On the Sunday morning after the shooting, I read an op-ed in The New York Times, “After Such Violence, the Center Must Hold,” by David French.

I was struck by his interpretation of a line by William Butler Yeats, written in 1919. With the world still reeling from World War I and a flu pandemic, and his own country, Ireland, embroiled in a war for independence, Yeats wrote the poem “The Second Coming.” The line, “Things fall apart; the center cannot hold,” referring to the moral center of civilization, seems to capture the critical point at which we stand as a nation. French writes, “Now is the time for the moral center of America to rise up and declare—with one voice, neither red nor blue—‘Enough.’”

I am reminded of another poet of our time, Amanda Gorman, who writes in her poem “New Days Lyric”:

May this be the day

We come together.

Grieving, we come to heal,

Withered we come to the weather,

Torn apart we come to care,

Battered we achieve a better result.

Tied down by this year of longing,

We are learning

That although we were not ready for this yet,

We are ready.

We swear steadfastly that it doesn’t matter

How heavily we are burdened,

We must always make a way forward.

Civic duty calls

When I think about our civic duty to appear when called upon to serve as potential jurors, when I think about how we can find our moral center as a nation, I am reminded of other civic duties and responsibilities we have as citizens. As participants in the public life of a community, it is important to be informed, committed, and to conduct ourselves constructively, with a focus on the common good.

We are required to obey the law, appear for jury service when called, attend school to gain an education, pay taxes, uphold the Constitution, and, if we are male and between the ages of 18 and 25, register for the draft.

In addition to these required civic duties, we hope that as responsible citizens we will exercise our voluntary right to vote, to speak respectfully on civic issues that affect us, to participate in community efforts to improve the well-being of citizens, and to show respect for those with whom we disagree. The hope is that we will have the morality to respect the beliefs and lives of all others, regardless of their perspective.

I pray and send positive energy for the possibility of our healing as a nation, but I also imagine that focusing on these civic duties and responsibilities will give us all concrete actions to become more effective citizens in these difficult times.

Quaker Parker Palmer, in his helpful book “Healing the Heart of Democracy,” written in 2011 but still relevant today, states, “Violence is what we do when we don’t know what to do with our suffering.” I pray that we can find constructive ways to deal with our suffering as we seek to heal our broken nation.

Reverend Candace McKibben is an ordained minister and pastor of Tallahassee Fellowship.

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