Considering ways to improve my personal best, I have been thinking of the topic of adversity, oppression, and injustice for a few months now. While I was walking/running and thinking this morning, I decided to try and formulate some thoughts with a couple of historical examples. Admittedly, this exercise is more hasty than I would prefer, so I'm sure there will be gaps and lack of connection to the ideas that I want to share. However and hopefully, this gives us all moment to pause and recognize we have choices in our daily actions and reactions. Hopefully we can all choose to treat one another kindly and generously give the benefit of the doubt to those with whom we cannot see eye to eye. I believe if we individually and collectively choose to forgive anyone of past wrongs and choose to unite on common ground, we will create a better future filled with liberty and justice for all.
I've purposely removed the names and locations from my excerpts below because I want to emphasize concepts more than have the focus on any individual, group, or culture which could also introduce unintentional bias to your (the reader's) mind. The intent is to provide enough of a unpleasant scenario that could be relevant and relatable so that we see possible paths forward.
My brief description of a particular scenario is hopefully general enough so that it can be applied to various past and present situations. As we understand better, perhaps we'll be able to think through our own individual and collective adversities, oppressions, an injustices and choose a best path forward.
Brief description of the situation and condition under which certain communications were delivered
As a result of fears, misunderstandings, hatred, and probably a long list of other reasons, a certain minority group of U.S. citizens feels persecutions and pressures from a certain majority group of U.S. citizens. At a certain point, the tensions between the zealous and faith-filled minority group and the oppressive and government supported majority group reach a point where physical conflicts emerge. As one would expect, the leaders of the minority group face an important choice... resist and face potential annihilation or resign and trust in God and the rule of law.
In this example, the minority group leaders were retained in a prison for several winter months. I will describe the conditions so we pause to consider how adversity also plays a role in our decision making.
In short the stone prison, or dungeon, would be considered inhospitable due to the winter cold, poor ventilation and rough dimensions of a basketball free-throw lane with a ceiling low enough so you cannot stand up straight. The minority group leaders were forced to sleep on filthy hay on the hard floor or on split logs and were served rotten food for around 5 months.
So, in that state, let's pretend you receive this letter...
Letter from wife to husband, March 1839
“Dear Husband
“Having an opportunity to send by a friend, I make an attempt to write, but I shall not attempt to write my feelings altogether, for the situation in which you are, the walls, bars, and bolts, rolling rivers, running streams, rising hills, sinking valleys and spreading prairies that separate us, and the cruel injustice that first cast you into prison and still holds you there, with many other considerations, places my feelings far beyond description.
“Was it not for conscious innocence, and the direct interposition of divine mercy, I am very sure I never should have been able to have endured the scenes of suffering that I have passed through … ; but I still live and am yet willing to suffer more if it is the will of kind Heaven that I should for your sake.
“We are all well at present, except Fredrick who is quite sick.
“Little Alexander who is now in my arms is one of the finest little fellows you ever saw in your life. He is so strong that with the assistance of a chair he will run all round the room. …
“No one but God knows the reflections of my mind and the feelings of my heart when I left our house and home, and almost all of everything that we possessed excepting our little Children, and took my journey out of the [I've omitted name of the State], leaving you shut up in that lonesome prison. But the recollection is more than human nature ought to bear. …
“… I hope there are better days to come to us yet. … [I] am ever yours affectionately.
[Loving wife]
Response letter from husband to wife, April, 1839
“Dear—and affectionate—Wife.
“Thursday night I sat down just as the sun is going down, as we peek through the grates of this lonesome prison, to write to you, that I may make known to you my situation. It is I believe now about five months and six days since I have been under the grimace of a guard night and day, and within the walls, grates, and screeking iron doors of a lonesome, dark, dirty prison. With emotions known only to God do I write this letter. The contemplations of the mind under these circumstances defies the pen, or tongue, or Angels, to describe, or paint, to the human being who never experienced what we experience. … We lean on the arm of Jehovah, and none else, for our deliverance, and if he doesn’t do it, it will not be done, you may be assured, for there is great thirsting for our blood in this state; not because we are guilty of anything. … My Dear [Wife] I think of you and the children continually. … I want to see little Frederick, Joseph, Julia, Alexander, Joana, and old major [the family dog]. … I would gladly walk from here to you barefoot, and bareheaded, and half naked, to see you and think it great pleasure, and never count it toil. … I bear with fortitude all my oppression, so do those that are with me; not one of us have flinched yet. I want you [to] not let [our children] forget me. Tell them Father loves them with a perfect love, and he is doing all he can to get away from the mob to come to them. … Tell them Father says they must be good children, and mind their mother. …
“Yours,
[Loving husband]
Would we respond to our situation in this way, especially after months of ignored petitions and appeals to the executive officers and judiciary?
When we consider our own feelings of isolation, loneliness, abandonment, do we sometimes feel like this minority leader who recorded his feelings in a plea of supplication to God?
O God, where art thou? And where is the pavilion that covereth thy hiding place?
How long shall thy hand be stayed, and thine eye, yea thy pure eye, behold from the eternal heavens the wrongs of thy people and of thy servants, and thine ear be penetrated with their cries?
Yea, O Lord, how long shall they suffer these wrongs and unlawful oppressions, before thine heart shall be softened toward them, and thy bowels be moved with compassion toward them?
O Lord God Almighty, maker of heaven, earth, and seas, and of all things that in them are, and who controllest and subjectest the devil, and the dark and benighted dominion of Sheol—stretch forth thy hand; let thine eye pierce; let thy pavilion be taken up; let thy hiding place no longer be covered; let thine ear be inclined; let thine heart be softened, and thy bowels moved with compassion toward us.
Let thine anger be kindled against our enemies; and, in the fury of thine heart, with thy sword avenge us of our wrongs.
Remember thy suffering saints, O our God; and thy servants will rejoice in thy name forever.
When God answers our prayers, are we humble enough to receive an answer such as the one this minority leader received?
My son, peace be unto thy soul; thine adversity and thine afflictions shall be but a small moment;
And then, if thou endure it well, God shall exalt thee on high; thou shalt triumph over all thy foes.
Thy friends do stand by thee, and they shall hail thee again with warm hearts and friendly hands.
Thou art not yet as Job; thy friends do not contend against thee, neither charge thee with transgression, as they did Job.
If thou art accused with all manner of false accusations; if thine enemies fall upon thee; if they tear thee from the society of thy father and mother and brethren and sisters; and if with a drawn sword thine enemies tear thee from the bosom of thy wife, and of thine offspring, and thine elder son, although but six years of age, shall cling to thy garments, and shall say, My father, my father, why can’t you stay with us? O, my father, what are the men going to do with you? and if then he shall be thrust from thee by the sword, and thou be dragged to prison, and thine enemies prowl around thee like wolves for the blood of the lamb;
And if thou shouldst be cast into the pit, or into the hands of murderers, and the sentence of death passed upon thee; if thou be cast into the deep; if the billowing surge conspire against thee; if fierce winds become thine enemy; if the heavens gather blackness, and all the elements combine to hedge up the way; and above all, if the very jaws of hell shall gape open the mouth wide after thee, know thou, my son, that all these things shall give thee experience, and shall be for thy good.
The Son of Man hath descended below them all. Art thou greater than he?
What an incredible set of questions for us to consider. What exactly are our options to respond to adversity and oppression? I personally think they are more numerous than might consider initially, but I really liked an essay written by another minority leader in the United States, about 120 years later.
Here is a summary of three ways he suggests we can meet oppression.
1. Acquiescence: "The oppressed resign themselves to their doom. They tacitly adjust themselves to oppression, and thereby become conditioned to it. In every movement toward freedom some of the oppressed prefer to remain oppressed. Almost 2800 years ago Moses set out to lead the children of Israel from the slavery of Egypt to the freedom of the Promised Land. He soon discovered that slaves do not always welcome their deliverers. They become accustomed to being slaves. They would rather bear those ills they have, as Shakespeare pointed out, than flee to others that they know not of. They prefer the “fleshpots of Egypt” to the ordeals of emancipation. There is such a thing as the freedom of exhaustion. Some people are so worn down by the yoke of oppression that they give up."
2. Resort to physical violence and corroding hatred: "Violence often brings about momentary results. Nations have frequently won their independence in battle. But in spite of temporary victories, violence never brings permanent peace. It solves no social problem; it merely creates new and more complicated ones.
Violence as a way of achieving racial justice is both impractical and immoral. It is impractical because it is a descending spiral ending in destruction for all. The old law of an eye for an eye leaves everybody blind. It is immoral because it seeks to humiliate the opponent rather than win his understanding; it seeks to annihilate rather than to convert. Violence is immoral because it thrives on hatred rather than love. It destroys community and makes brotherhood impossible. It leaves society in monologue rather than dialogue. Violence ends by defeating itself. It creates bitterness in the survivors and brutality in the destroyers. A voice echoes through time saying to every potential Peter, “Put up your sword.” History is cluttered with the wreckage of nations that failed to follow his command."
3. Nonviolent resistance: "Like the synthesis in Hegelian philosophy, the principle of nonviolent resistance seeks to reconcile the truths of two opposites-acquiescence and violence-while avoiding the extremes and immoralities of both. The nonviolent resister agrees with the person who acquiesces that one should not be physically aggressive toward his opponent; but he balances the equation by agreeing with the person of violence that evil must be resisted. He avoids the nonresistance of the former and the violent resistance of the latter. With nonviolent resistance, no individual or group need submit to any wrong, nor need anyone resort to violence in order to right a wrong.
In the end, it is not a struggle between people at all, but a tension between justice and injustice. Nonviolent resistance is not aimed against oppressors but against oppression. Under its banner consciences, not racial groups, are enlisted.
All three elements are indispensable. The movement for equality and justice can only be a success if it has both a mass and militant character; the barriers to be over-come require both. Nonviolence is an imperative in order to bring about ultimate community.
A mass movement of militant quality that is not at the same time committed to nonviolence tends to generate conflict, which in turn breeds anarchy. The support of the participants and the sympathy of the uncommitted are both inhibited by the threat that bloodshed will engulf the community. This reaction in turn encourages the opposition to threaten and resort to force. When, however, the mass movement repudiates violence while moving resolutely toward its goal, its opponents are revealed as the instigators and practitioners of violence if it occurs. Then public support is magnetically attracted to the advocates of nonviolence, while those who employ violence are literally disarmed by overwhelming sentiment against their stand.
Only through a nonviolent approach can the fears of [a] community be mitigated. A guilt-ridden [oppressive] minority lives in fear that if the [oppressed group] should ever attain power, he would act without restraint or pity to revenge the injustices and brutality of the years. It is something like a parent who continually mistreats a son. One day that parent raises his hand to strike the son, only to discover that the son is now as tall as he is. The parent is suddenly afraid-fearful that the son will use his new physical power to repay his parent for all the blows of the past.
The job of the [oppressed group] is to show [oppressive group] that they have nothing to fear, that the [oppressed group] understands and forgives and is ready to forget the past. He must convince the [oppressive group] that all he seeks is justice, for both himself and the [oppressive group]. A mass movement exercising nonviolence is an object lesson in power under discipline, a demonstration to the [oppressive] community that if such a movement attained a degree of strength, it would use its power creatively and not vengefully.
Nonviolence can touch men where the law cannot reach them. When the law regulates behavior it plays an indirect part in molding public sentiment. The enforcement of the law is itself a form of peaceful persuasion. But the law needs help. The courts can order... But what can be done to mitigate the fears, to disperse the hatred, violence, and irrationality... to take the initiative out of the hands of racial demagogues, to release respect for the law? In the end, for laws to be obeyed, men must believe they are right.
Here nonviolence comes in as the ultimate form of persuasion. It is the method which seeks to implement the just law by appealing to the con-science of the great decent majority who through blindness, fear, pride, or irrationality have allowed their consciences to sleep.
The nonviolent resisters can summarize their message in the following simple terms: We will take direct action against injustice without waiting for other agencies to act. We will not obey unjust laws or submit to unjust practices. We will do this peacefully, openly, cheerfully because our aim is to persuade. We adopt the means of nonviolence because our end is a community at peace with itself. We will try to persuade with our words, but if our words fail, we will try to persuade with our acts. We will always be willing to talk and seek fair compromise, but we are ready to suffer when necessary and even risk our lives to become witnesses to the truth as we see it.
The way of nonviolence means a willingness to suffer and sacrifice. It may mean going to jail. If such is the case the resister must be willing to fill the jailhouses. It may even mean physical death. But if physical death is the price that a man must pay to free his children and his [oppressors'] brethren from a permanent death of the spirit, then nothing could be more redemptive."
So, now that I've put my thoughts to writing I hope we can pause to consider what improvement we can make in our daily choices that will minimize the division and polarization that we see on the news and in our own lives. The distractions are many; politics, past injustices, inequalities of all shapes and sizes, Covid pandemic impacts and vaccination differences of opinions, and many other issues, but they all can be addressed through productive dialogue and focus on treating each other with kindness and generosity.
I'll finish with a quote that I have recently come to like. I'll leave it to each of you to see how we can best apply it in pursuit of our personal best each and every day.
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