I haven’t written much recently. I have been pretty
depressed about what is going on in the United States. The anger that seems to
be roiling just below the surface with so many citizens is almost palpable at
times. It shows in the political process and it surfaces in the way people
treat each other. Lines are being drawn and people who cross are considered
traitors. Yet our society has been built on the premise that in a democracy, we
vote and then live with the decision of the majority. In order for that
democracy to thrive, however, the victors need to be willing to compromise on
issues so that even the losers feel included in the general well-being of
society. Our society has been gradually moving away from this sense of
inclusion, and the winners, in their exultation and trashing of the losers,
have left a large portion of the population feeling betrayed and abandoned. As
a result, we now find ourselves facing an election with no viable candidates willing
to offer hope for a society where all its citizens will be accepted and
respected.
I don’t have any real solutions to offer. And that is my
problem. Instead I am going back to a poem I wrote a few years ago. I have
never found a leader or a philosophy that didn’t have some flaws and when we
make the mistake of subscribing, totally, to either, we open ourselves and our
society to disastrous consequences. Right now, it seems to me, that the left
and right are trying to tear the country apart and we have no leadership or
constituency that really wants to prevent it. I would caution us all, in both
parties, to beware the “True Believers”. Our society will not survive without
the freedom of both winners and losers to voice their differences and to continue
to cherish the hope that we all have a
chance someday to feel like a winner.
“The True Believer”(In the Cat’s Eye, Snap Screen
Press, 2009) is a cautionary tale about what happens when those who think they
have all the answers rule with impunity, and with the sure knowledge that they
are purveyors of all that is right and true. It is a scary place, and we all
should be very afraid that our absolutist actions are helping to take us there.
Glenn K. Currie
True Believers
They wear their
causes
Like tattoos.
Insignias
Made from the cloth
Of cultural
epiphanies
Or sacred decrees.
They march to words
Beaten into placards.
Written too large
To accommodate
The small surface
Of their hearts.
Their torches burn
At my windows,
Demanding
Allegiance
To a society
Without questions.
They want to create
A new world,
Where everyone
Believes the same.
Where everyone knows
All the answers.
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