The Ugliness is the Hope.  Yes, it sounds strange, yet it’s true.  Consider the way images impact and change our world.  In 1963 the Birmingham Campaign was stuck.  No progress was being made.  The nation sat, oblivious to the hate behind Jim Crow.  Then high school aged children started to march.  Bull Connor turned police dogs on them.

He had the Birmingham Fire Department attack them with fire hoses.

The images shocked a nation, opened the eyes of white America to the hate of Jim Crow.  It’s likely that The Civil Rights Act of 1964 would not have passed without the knowledge of these horrors.

The Ugliness is the Hope.

(Note: A special thank you to Robert Reich for the reminder of the images of Dr. King’s campaigns)

Most of us have seen the video of what happened to John Lewis just moments after this photo was taken:

He was beaten, his skull fractured.  I’ve read reports that Dr. King had recently met with President Johnson.  They had talked about passage of the voting rights act.  The president told Dr. King that he needed something.  That “something” became the Selma to Montgomery march, it was the terror on the Pettus Bridge.  The horrors gave the president the political leverage he needed to get the Voting Rights Act of 1965 passed.

The Ugliness is the Hope.

Most of us have seen this image:

A man, brutally executed in Saigon during the Tet Offensive.  It brought home the horrors of the war and helped feed a movement for peace.

The Ugliness is the Hope.

This image is from Boston:

It was taken outside of Boston City Hall during the riots and protests against school busing, busing that was meant to end segregation of the Boston public school system.  The man being attacked was an innocent bystander.  He had business in city hall and was attacked for no reason other than for being Black. The picture is a shocking today as it was when it was taken in 1976.

The Ugliness is the Hope.

So why do I believe this?  Because some Trump supporters are starting to wake up to what and who they actually voted for.  Shortly after the election there were anecdotal stories of people who voted for Trump who started to realize that their friends and family members are who he plans to deport.

Concerning deportations: who will be deported?  They are the people who butcher our meats, who pick our fruits and vegetables.  How will prices go down when there is no one to do these jobs? They are the people who work our construction jobs.  How will the disaster areas in North Carolina and California rebuild without workers?  How will housing costs come down?  The people to be deported cut our lawns, they clean our houses and workplaces.  In many ways they form the backbone our our society.

Before I continue I need to cast some of the blame for our current situation on CNN and the news media in general.  Under the cover of “balanced” journalism they continued to present Trump “whisperers”, people who would explain what Trump “really” meant and how it differed from what he actually said.  As a case in point, Trump repeatedly said he would pardon the January 6 terrorists, people he called “hostages”.  His whisperers would go on TV and explain that he meant he would only pardon the people who committed non-violent crimes.  Nope.  Trump did exactly what he said he would do: he pardoned them all.  He pardoned people who threatened to hang the Vice President.  He pardoned those who beat police officers, who stole their weapons, who sprayed them with bear and pepper spray, who tased them.  And most of the country, including Republicans, believe he went too far.

The Ugliness is the Hope.

And now it’s tariffs, 25% on items from Mexico and Canada, an additional 10% of goods from China.  Who pays these tariffs? Ultimately it’s the American consumer.  Some economist estimate that the average family will bear $3,000 in additional expenses each year.  It’s not clear what the full impact will be.  As an example, no automobiles are built solely in the United States.  The car I drive was assembled in Mexico.  It has parts made in the United States and Canada.  How much more will it cost with the new tariffs?  How much more will people be paying for food?  For energy?  The governor of Massachusetts estimates that electricity costs will go up by $200 million in the state because we are so dependent on power from Canada.  How long will it take for people who supported Trump to realize that he’s doing exactly what he said he’d do, that he lied when he said he’d lower costs?

I could go on with examples.  Feel free to add yours to the comments.

The Ugliness is the Hope.

Resist. Persist. Oppose. Propose. Be the opposition with a proposition.

Be the Pebble