Michelle L. Smith

No matter where you sit on the political spectrum, it's never been clearer that we're a divided Nation. I'm particularly troubled by the ultra-conservative platform of Project 2025, which seeks to rescind many of the freedoms and rights we've tirelessly fought to attain. My parents lived during the era when biracial marriages were illegal. My father was turned away from his veterans' benefits after fighting in the Korean War. And when my brother returned from fighting in Vietnam, he was marginalized as an "other" by his fellow Americans. I fear we're on a trajectory to propel us back to darker times.

The incremental gains in true freedom for all American citizens has been fraught with serious uphill battles. It took a tremendous amount of effort to deliver voting rights for White women, and then Black men. And it took the Voting Rights Act of 1965 (barely 60 years ago!) to bestow the right to vote upon Black women. But the current acrimony of our political discourse extends beyond the usual gender and racial divide. Whitewashing American history (essential to carrying off this divisive agenda); controlling women's bodies (as one well-known white supremacist stated shortly after the recent presidential election); bolstering a patriarchal culture; "purifying" or "cleansing" our society of its black- and brown-skin constituents; shuttering the free press; dismantling our justice system and abandoning the rule of law are all tenets inherent in Project 2025. Yet at least half of this Nation's population voted against their own interests.

While I've done no scientific research to back this up, I'm guessing there's some primordial programming of our brains that has not evolved as rapidly as other parts—programming that allows the human psyche to promote tribalism and tolerate inequality when it serves to elevate the stature of one group over another.

But what does all this have to do with writing, you ask? In my estimation, it has a lot to do with the use of the written word as an outlet to voice our thoughts in the setting of injustice. Thus far, we've enjoyed our First Amendment right of freedom of speech without the deployment of the military to squelch our voices. This safety net may end soon, but no one can silence our thoughts. And we must not allow disinformation to become the new norm.

While I'm not one to proselytize or quote Bible passages, I unearthed the following from Matthew 12:25: "Every kingdom divided against itself will be ruined, and every city or household divided against itself will not stand."

United we stand, divided we fall has never been more poignant. Let's hope there's still enough good will out there to keep this Nation—this Great American Experiment—upright.

Censorship, book banning, and "cancel culture" all tie into our First Amendment right to free speech, a critical component of our fragile democracy. I have great admiration for the saying, "We can agree to disagree," which is why I find the removal of books that speak to the truth of this country's founding quite disturbing. I don't know of anyone who feels good about the shameful aspects of our history; but if we choose to ignore it, we're doomed to repeat it, as many great minds have portended. This last sentiment contributes to the impetus, in my humble opinion, to ensure the Holocaust is not forgotten.

I recently read a gripping memoir written by a good friend's father, a 94-year-old Holocaust survivor. In his book titled The Life of a Child Survivor, Ben Midler poignantly laid out the atrocities he witnessed as a young teen. Midler took me on a harrowing journey, starting with the Nazi bombings and invasion of his home town in Poland to his long overdue rescue and liberation, all while continuously searching for members of his family. He provided keen insight into the political and societal aspects of how such depravity could ever take place and is acutely aware that the current generation of youths is far removed in their familiarity with this history.

Leading up to last week's mid-term elections, many decried the frightening possibility of the loss of our democracy to fascism and autocratic rule. The re-engineering of voter districts primarily to the disadvantage of marginalized communities (gerrymandering) made it more difficult for those voters to participate in a free and fair election. However, this self-serving scheme led to record voter turnout even in the face of rising inflation, extremist tribalism, and growing political violence. Our voices would have been extinguished and the outcome of the elections likely predetermined if we lived under autocratic rule. But the American people spoke up once again for democracy.

When I first wrote this blog to be posted after the elections, I wasn't sure we'd still have a democratic government. However, it seems the American people remain vested in its survival. If we don't fight for democracy, our Great American Experiment will fail. And that fight necessitates an understanding of the principles on which our Nation was founded—the good, the bad, and the ugly.