Are the Majority of Americans Decent Human Beings? I Sure Hope So!

Among the most hateful crap coming from right wingers these days is the accusation that anyone standing up for LGBTQ rights is a "groomer" who supports pedophelia. That is what happened to Michigan State Senator Mallory McMorrow on Easter - of all days. So on Monday, she took to the senate floor and gave a speech that rocked the political world.

Senator Lana Theis accused me by name of grooming and sexualizing children in an attempt to marginalize me for standing up against her marginalizing the LGBTQ community...in a fundraising email, for herself.

Hate wins when people like me stand by and let it happen. I won't. pic.twitter.com/jL5GU42bTv

— Mallory McMorrow (@MalloryMcMorrow) April 19, 2022

McMorrow said that when she first saw the attack, she sat on it and wondered "why me?" 

Then I realized...

I’m the biggest threat to your hollow, hateful scheme. Because you can’t claim that you’re targeting marginalized kids in the name of “parental rights” if another parent is standing up and saying no.

She ended by saying that "Hate wins when people like me stand by and let it happen...We will not let hate win."

It is clear that I'm not the only one who shed a few tears when I listened to her speech and felt a release from the burden of hate that has rested on all of our shoulders recently. That video has now been viewed millions of times and, apparently, small donations are pouring into McMorrow's campaign coffers. In other words, she touched a nerve. 

It reminded me of the exchange that put Beto O'Rourke on the map during his 2018 senate campaign against Ted Cruz.  

 

McMorrow and O'Rourke demonstrated what it means to be an ally when people are being targeted for persecution. I am reminded of what Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr. said about the alternative...silence.

#MLK on SILENCE:

“There comes a time when silence is betrayal."

“Our lives begin to end the day we become silent about things that matter."

“In the end, we will remember not the words of our enemies, but the silence of our friends." pic.twitter.com/l18kaSOI9R

— The Martin Luther King, Jr. Center (@TheKingCenter) May 29, 2020

These days everyone has an opinion about what Democrats need to do to avoid a "shellacking" in the midterm elections. The advice spans the gamut of sticking to so-called "kitchen table issues," promoting a pet policy issue (monopolies, student loan forgiveness, etc.), moving towards the center, or firing up the progressive base. In other words, the advice is all over the map. But one thing it all has in common is that it is silent about the hate that is being inflamed by right wingers. 

When Senator McMorrow appeared on MSNBC with Jonathan Capehart, she said that she was feeling "exhausted and tired" from this kind of hate - something that many of us can relate to. But instead of retreating or ignoring it - she took in on directly. In doing so, she energized millions of us!

Today John Pavlovitz pointed us back to a piece he wrote in 2019 titled, "I’m Not The Radical Left, I’m The Humane Middle." In it he noted that he is now considered part of the "radical left" by right wingers for believing in things like women should have full autonomy over their bodies, that people shouldn’t be forced to abide by anyone else’s religion, and that people and places are made better by diversity.

Pavlovitz goes on to question how those ideas became radical when he was taught that "they were just part of being a decent human being." But here's where he agrees with McMorrow:

I don’t think I’m alone.

In fact, I’m pretty sure that most people reside here in this place alongside me: the desire for compassion and diversity and equality and justice; that these things aren’t fringe ideologies or extremist positions—but simply the best way to be human.

Oh, how I hope to god that he and McMorrow are right. If the majority of people don't agree with them, we are doomed as a democracy and as a decent country...and nothing else matters!