April brought rare calendar alignment of major holidays in Jewish, Christian and Muslim faiths, causing a confluence of reflections for communities making up the three monotheistic traditions among people around the world who celebrate Passover, Easter and Ramadan, respectively.
April also brought some quiet time to celebrate signs of spring—even when a storm dumped more snow than some of us had all last winter. Spring inspires the joy of resurrection and signs of hope that we will move forward as people with grace and strength towards a better world.
I found signs of hope in many places:
First, in the truly great people of our country—and in the stories told every day, if we but look for them, of those who are the first to reach out to help a neighbor in need, of deputies who heroically rescue someone, teachers who help a child learn to read, firefighters who rush to put out a burning inferno, doctors and nurses who provide outstanding medical care, farmers and ranchers who raise our food and take care of the earth. It is love for one another and love for our country that defines our stories and gives us hope.
Second, there is hope because more and more Americans are rising up and saying, “enough!” Although I sometimes differ with James C. Nelson, his April 20 column “American democracy—alive or dead?” was 100% on target. He decried growing factionalism, predatory politics, downgrading, economic inequity, and unregulated internet and social media. His conclusion bears repeating:
“To stop the backslide we need to focus on the values that sustain democracy, including the rule of law; the equal and impartial application of legal procedure; and accountability—the extent to which citizens are able to participate in selecting their government as well as their freedom of expression, association, free media, free and fair elections, and effective government.
“To stop our slide from anocracy into autocracy is a tall order. But the inescapable fact is that if we the people are not committed to saving our American democracy, then it will die from within.”
I am hopeful that people will continue to resist the COVID-related tyranny that selectively closed churches and businesses, outlawed certain health care, and mandated vaccines. We must stop the spread of digital vaccine passports, which likely would lead to travel, social and financial controls in our lives. Americans—right, left, libertarian, green, independent, constitutional or whatever—are recognizing our peril and coalescing to rise together as we the people and proclaim “enough!”
I also find hope in our foundational principles set forth in the Declaration of Independence: “We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their creator with certain unalienable rights, that among these are life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.” Thomas Jefferson described this declaration as “an expression of the American mind” intended to “place before mankind the common sense of the subject, in terms so plain and firm as to command their assent.”
Because individuals equally possess these rights by nature, democratic government derives its just power from the consent of the governed. The supreme law of the land, the U.S. Constitution, was written to create the system of government that would limit federal power and secure the blessings of liberty by which every generation could more forward as a participant towards a “more perfect union”.
There is hope and strength in our remarkable history. We are united by our shared history and heroes, from early settlers to Lexington and Concord, to the Greatest Generation defense of freedom, to our compassion and support for the people of Ukraine and our admiration for Volodymyr Zelenskyy’s leadership in defense of democracy everywhere. We are the unique melting pot of the world, and we are more united than we are divided by the great opportunities our republic affords. We must stop trying to break the system and stop those who would destroy it.
Even though we’re facing some horrific challenges and real destruction of confidence and education in these principles and institutions, I take hope in many states like Montana that are resisting numerous unconstitutional orders and regulations, proactively restoring teaching history and civics, and ensuring communications and transparency in K-12 public education. Our institutions are resilient and the pendulum is swinging back.
I take hope that many authors, clergy, musicians and other leaders are finding their voices and raising them in defense of democracy. For example, Archbishop Carlo Maria Vigano, who served as the Vatican’s Apostolic Nuncio to the United States, issued a public letter last winter saying, in part, “Be proud of your identity as American patriots and of the faith that must animate your life. Do not allow anyone to make you feel inferior just because you love your homeland, because you are honest at work, because you want to protect your family and raise your children with healthy values, because you respect the elderly, because you protect life from conception to its natural end.”
As Peter Thacher said in his 1800 sermon to Massachusetts officials following the death of George Washington in 1799, “We must maintain a spirit of mutual forbearance and good will, and must cultivate especially those principles of religion and morality which are the only solid cement of society, and the only firm foundation of liberty. Where God is neglected; where the religion of Christ is denied; where men are governed not by reason or religion, but by party views and furious passions, there may be the name of liberty, but the thing never can exist.”
We the people are coalescing around our strong believe that the greatest nation in the history of the world will survive and again be governed by us and not by the global elitists who would destroy us. We must be committed to saving our republic.
As always, I am grateful and blessed to call Montana home.
Hamman, a Clancy resident, is former deputy director of the Montana Governor’s Office of Budget and Program Planning.
