I would guess most of the readers of this paper have seen the killing of Renee Nicole Good and Alex Jeffery Pretti. Good was killed by Jonathan Ross, who graduated from Anderson University. I was the student government president of that college in Indiana.
I recently listened to immigrants in North Dakota describe the impact of ICE activities on their lives. One man told me that he had lived in a refugee camp for 15 years. He had seen relatives killed in ethnic cleansing, and he now believes that his legal status as a refugee with a green card, on track for citizenship, means nothing.
He is afraid to take his mother to her medical appointments. My own grandson is anxious that his classmates may be taken away. I share their anxiety and I wake up during the night because of it.
My mother also attended Anderson University as did several of her grandchildren. At Anderson we sang “Anderson, my alma mater, guide of soul and mind, thou hast taught within thy borders to aid all mankind. So, for this our noble purpose, may our best avail, friend of all that’s good and upright, hail to thee all hail.”
In the search for a respite from despair, I think of songs. Those songs remind me what it means to be a friend of all that good and upright and to aid all mankind. From the time I can first remember, I came to believe that honesty is a foundational virtue.
My dad was born on February 22, George Washington’s birthday. My grandmother would bake cherry pies and come to our house to celebrate my dad’s and George’s birthday and we would hear the story of a young George confessing he chopped down the cherry tree.
In Speedwell Township, I learned that honesty was good. As a foundational moral value honesty is rule # 1. The second foundational value is the notion that all people are equal.
I majored in political science and minored in religion at Anderson University. I learned the evolution of thought that led to Jefferson writing the declaration that all people are created equal. Jefferson said human equality was a self-evident truth. Equality was a founding principle of the United States which fought a civil war over it.
Human equality is rule # 2 as moral foundation. Donald Trump, white supremacists and Christian nationalists are attacking human equality and honesty. Trump, white supremacists and Christian nationalists don’t want honest history telling the truth about what actually happened. They are dehumanizing massive groups of people, attempting to strip them of their civil rights as human beings, denying due process and firing people because of their skin color. Their racism and dishonesty are bad for North Dakota and the nation.
In my anxiety I go to church. Much like a person goes to an exercise class when they don’t feel like it, I feel better because I went. In church I hear stories and sing hymns written by people who went through this same anxiety and despair.
I have learned the conditions that inspired songs like “There Is a Balm in Gilead”, “Lift Every Voice and Sing” and “How Can I Keep from Singing.”
Once again church people are gathering in the streets of Minneapolis, and on the Boulevard in Bismarck, and across the country. I see them hugging each other as brother and sister in the quest for justice, feeding the hungry, welcoming the stranger and healing the sick. And they are singing. In support of all that’s good, may our best avail.
Bill Patrie is a retired planner and economic developer having worked in regional and statewide positions. He is the author of “Creating Co-op Fever” printed by USDA as a service bulletin, and “100 Stories of Hope” a book about his interviews with 100 people in poverty.
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