Won the war, ... Now win the peace ...

The Union won the 1861-1865 Civil War Between the States which ravaged the then United States of America; though at that time "united" was not the condition of all prior US states.

But, when will the Union win the peace?  When will the US be united?

Those who take even a cursory look at history before, of, and after the US Civil War period of time will note how dangerously close the Confederate States of America, with some amount of international foreign support, came to surviving and perhaps even prevailing in the armed conflict, at least enough to have legally sustained the seceding sovereign states as independent from the United States of America. While legal slavery surely could not have lasted to the present day, the path from then to now would certainly have been different in many ways. Sworn to uphold and defend the Constitution of the United States (the presidential oath is set forth in the US Constitution in Article II), President Abraham Lincoln narrowly avoided his (1858) expressed fear of “a house divided against itself.”  

President Lincoln is a fascinating figure of history. We often try to make him two-dimensional as we do with many things which require serious study and thought. The depth of devastating real-life experiences he lived through during the horrendous national conflict boggle the mind of any right-minded person. So many books have been written about his life and presidency that to even put forth a guess of a number of them would be folly. However, for those books that have found their way onto my reading list over the years, there is one idea which rings through all of them. President Lincoln believed in the Union. Not the Union as opposed to the Confederacy, nothing as mundane as that, but rather he believed in the Union of the separate states - all of them - as a high ideal of the very fabric of what our great American Experiment is all about. He literally slowly, grindingly, generously, brilliantly, steadfastly, sacrificially gave his “last full measure of devotion” to that conviction and commitment. 

From the founding of the United States of America in the Revolutionary War of Independence in the late 1700’s, 90 years later President Lincoln then led the forging of the Union into its current condition of sovereign states bound together for mutual and collective interest, principle, protection and prosperity. For all his efforts and sacrifices, even in the expression of his Emancipation Proclamation, President Lincoln did not end slavery. Did the legal institution and business model of American slavery end? Certainly the 13th Amendment to the US Constitution abolished slavery as a legal practice. But in the hearts of men and women, of all races, slavery lived on. It lived, and lives, on - called other things by various people - like some nagging and horrible infection which is always felt and present, and which occasionally boils out into ugly and horrible painful wounds which serve to shame, distract, damage and scar us all because we continuously refuse the solution which is before us as a nation. Our national solution to this problem is to do whatever it takes to make that which is causing this problem, and those who desire its continuance, totally unacceptable in our present and future American society.  

Slavery as an institution is not a uniquely American experience. History and a review of current events around the world remind us of this. Slavery as a human condition is not just kidnapping, chains, forced labor, and loss of basic human and civil rights. It shape-shifts into many forms of organized groups subjugating other groups for various self-serving purposes.

For all the admirable aspects of President Lincoln, based on the benefit of roughly 160 years of ensuing US history, about all we can say is that he succeeded in getting most of the various demons back into a single Pandora’s Box - putting some sort of a lid on a cauldron destined to boil incessantly. He left those Americans who have come after him to finish the work. So far, we have failed.  We have dishonored the sacrifices of President Lincoln, and hundreds of thousands of other Americans, who put us on a path toward a United States which would be fully in keeping with our Declaration of Independence and Constitution.

Stepping forward from President Lincoln’s time about 100 years, we find another courageous man of conviction who took up the burden of his past and his present with a heart for change, “a dream that ... one day (we would) live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character.” Our United States national soul and people have failed thus far in such character judgment by generation after generation. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., saw the purpose of his cause and his message and his sacrifice as that great idea that his children should one day be at home in their homeland. For his devotion to his dream, and his sacrificial laying down of his life before and into his untimely unjust death, Dr. King also gave the “last full measure of devotion.” He did not give his life in devotion to black people. He gave his life and his death, in devotion to what he believed the United States of America is supposed to be ... for all people. 

And here we are. We are flowing headlong into the upcoming fall 2020 election cycle with our world swirling with corona-covid19 so-called information whipsawing our lives and economy into confusion all while some of our citizens are taking to the streets to ask for what President Lincoln and Dr. King believed must define our national identity - all of our rights for all of our people.  

Those whose voices call out for what is right and promised under our United States Constitution are to be commended for their boldness and initiative and commitment and resolve. Those who call for what is good and true; we must endorse and encourage and embrace. Those who call for other forms of self-serving agendas, provided that they do so in lawful ways; we must respectfully ignore. Those who behave unlawfully must be restrained, disempowered, quieted and controlled; in lawful ways with respect for their civil rights.

If it was our national will to end slavery once and for all, in all its overt and masquerading forms, we would do it. That which matters to us, we do something about. Everything else we talk about or we ignore. In my innermost self, I genuinely believe we have the individual, corporate and national will to overcome this problem and rise above ourselves and our past.  My assessment is that those we have elected and hired to lead us fail to take us seriously on this subject, believing that we will continue to long endure the status quo and ongoing petty political play-time while our Constitutional American conscience invigorates us to conviction, commitment, and expectation of change. We must win the peace. Those in elected office placed there to serve us are infiltrated with far too many persons who benefit by the self-serving preservation of disparity of experience of the American ideal of “liberty and justice for all.”  

Future generations of Americans, should we fail to rise to this challenge, will once and for all eliminate this blight from their national identity.  

I pray that it will be in my lifetime.