Coming off the 4th of July holiday, this column is a major departure from how I have written columns for nearly four decades.
It is personal.
I have avoided using “I’ and have endeavored to remain objective and impersonal as I have addressed and analyzed myriad social, educational and political issues across race, age, gender and socioeconomic status.
Maybe the “I” in this column is a “collective I” that tugs.
I have a hunch that many of my fellow Missourians and Americans may be feeling as I do as we live through unprecedented, tumultuous, and unsettling political times.
What are you longing for?
I long for a state and country where:
- The fundamental tenets, rules, procedures and laws that have governed our democratic republic still hold true and still mean something as we function in the public square and in our everyday lives.
- Our institutions and their histories still have meaning, value, collective power and influence.
- There is real meaning and we still value representative government, where those elected really believe in respecting and fighting for the issues and concerns of those who voted for them, sent them to do the people’s bidding.
- The behaviors of the leadership in our state and nation — our governor, the legislature, our president, the halls of Congress — are shining examples to be emulated, duplicated, and cheered on.
- There is hope and a positive outlook about what each of us can achieve if we work hard enough.
Some may consider those longings naive or idealistic.
I do not.
As a Black woman, born and raised on a small farm in Mississippi, and who has lived and or witnessed first-hand the good, the bad and the ugly of life in America, I have always remained hopeful and refused to give up on believing in the best of our collective humanity.
When I watch DEI programs being dismantled across every aspect of American life as if the playing field is equal, I still believe in fairness and decency in spite of my experiences throughout my career — not getting jobs I was qualified for, sometimes overly qualified for, not able to buy a house in a neighborhood I could afford, on and on.
Despite those experiences, I refused to be bitter, paint the situation or future prospects with a broad brush, or feel that I would always be victimized by racism and sexism.
If I am a victim, it is in my belief that hope for a better humanity reigns eternal.
But today and for some time, I must admit, I am finding it difficult to not become pessimistic, to not throw up my hands and say, “What’s the use?
We see examples and reminders every day that we are allowing debased values and goals to kill the progress we have made for over two centuries.
Who are the few representatives in Jefferson City and Washington who will assume and use the power invested in them to stand up and stop the negative and destructive trajectory — of us versus them — that the state and nation is on?
No matter where we hail from, no matter our circumstances of birth, we have shared experiences that should bind us, not divide us.
Like many of you, I have voted for both Democrats and Republicans. I vote for the person and what they stand for. I am both conservative and liberal — and moderate — depending on the issue.
When it comes to what is best for Missouri and America, it is about building bridges that we can all walk across to achieve the best good for the greatest number.
Our collective future is dependent on it.
Janice Ellis is a columnist for the Missouri Independent