POLS 134- Spec. Topics in American Democracy Journal One
Conflict plays major role in our livelihoods. Just as there is good and bad and as sure death, we know there will be peace and conflict. Evidence of this lives on throughout history in the form of stories, observations and published scholarly articles. In the peak of the 19th Century, Karl Marx deduced the Conflict Theory that denotes that “society is in a perpetual state of conflict due to limited resources”. Later in 1967, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr in his address at the National Conference on New Politics states that “the final phase of our national sickness is the disease of militarism”. Growing up we hear stories of great battles in history and how the simplest difference in opinions has divided continents and countries. We’ve lived with the notion that conflict resolution was more physically and barbaric than it is now. Now, most of our disagreements and policy decisions are led in courtrooms by the hearts and minds of people entrusted with the country’s democracy. We had no idea of the hit America’s democracy would take at the beginning of 2021 and as an outsider looking in, I must say it knocked the development back a couple decades.
On January 6, 2021, the United States of America and the world at large watched as its world renowned democracy was toppled over by the acts of far-right savages upon instruction from President Donald Trump. His claims of a fraudulent, ill-managed and corruption spurred on thousands on individuals to take their distress in the GOP’s loss to the doors of the Electoral College Vote count-Capitol Hill. According to the BBC, Mr. Trump concludes his speech with the charge “we fight, we fight like hell and if you don’t fight like hell, you’re not going to have a country anymore”. The Insurrection took the lives of several individuals, injured thousands of individuals and sent others fleeing for their lives from what should’ve been one of the country’s most sacred buildings. It was a gruesome act that shook every corner of the world to its core and we will live to remember the outpour of discontent and shock everywhere.
I remember waking up to the shrieks of my mother watching the news on CNN; believe it or not, Caribbean people are very attentive to American news. I would assume it’s because of how directly American livelihoods affect our economy, whether it may be through remittances or tourism. The calls merged amongst family members, following a conversation that would last for hours on end. As I look back, I remember the emotions more than the actual details of what took place throughout the day. I remember feeling devastated at the thought that this was what politics had come to, what has been a peace transfer of powers since the establishment of the American Constitution had now become diminished to embarrassment in the eyes of the world. I remember feeling so angry about the unfairness that the situation was dealt with in comparison to peaceful protests by people of color. We have been met with every form of violence possible and the day that white supremacy and privilege decides to disgrace the country, there was little to no police in sight. The country’s leadership had failed them and that doesn’t comes as a surprise to many people because that’s been the cases since Donald Trump would handed the presidency. He has put democratic leadership and the country’s democracy on a guillotine and stood there to be its executioner.
Jamie Ben Raskin is a proud U.S. Representative for Maryland’s 8th congressional district since 2017. He is a member of the Democratic Party and has served as a state senator for three terms from 2007–2016. He is a university professor, an attorney, an avid constitution lover, husband and mourning father. On December 31, 2020, Jamie Raskin endured one of the most heartbreaking experiences that life can offer-the death of a child; his son, Thomas Bloom Raskin had committed suicide. Even at the peak of his despair, Raskin’s troubles had only begun as he was inside Capitol Hill being apart of the electoral college vote when the riot happened. This semester we explore the depths of trauma, truth and the trials of American Democracy in this course as we read Jamie Raskin’s book entitled Unthinkable: The Trials, Truth and Trials of American Democracy.
For the first week of class, we introduced ourselves amongst our peers and recollected on our memories of the day of the Insurrection. I got a chance to look into the varying experiences of my classmates that brought up so many points i didn’t even begin to think of. Their responses showed how widespread the savage act of the protesters was, across the country and across the world, how emotionally exhausting and terrifying the entire scene was and how much trauma from previous national problems had put people into a frenzy and mass hysteria. I realized how many people compared their feelings of the Insurrection to that of those they experienced during and after 9/11. The despair and shock because of the spontaneity of both events and the anger and need to justice for those implicated.
“It was as if real life had been canceled for the day.”
― Jennifer Weiner, Who Do You Love
Do you ever wonder who we would be if we hadn’t been cast bad lots in life ? If we hadn’t become victims of mild to severe cases of adversity ? Who would we be without the lessons of trauma and the trauma in and of itself ? Better yet, does everything we possibly go through in this lifetime connected in some way ?
We have all been socialised to approach our trauma in a variety of different ways; whether it may be to bottle it up and explode at the right point, to push it to the furthest part of our minds and forget it ever happened or practice healthy communication. I am from a small community in St. Catherine, the parish adjacent to my country’s capital Kingston and as children, we are taught that nothing that we may ever face in our lifetime will ever compare to that of our ancestors. Now ethically this should be an unacceptable way to raise children, however culturally it is very much still active.
For the first week of classes, we discussed the Preface of Unthinkable. We were tasked with the objective of finding someone, real or fictional, who has made meaning out of their trauma by translating it into leadership. Instantly, I thought of Mamie Till.
Though it was under very different conditions and in a different time, Mamie Till’s trauma stems from the loss of a child just as Jamie Raskin. The story of her son’s death has echoed across continents for decades and I had only learnt of this woman’s courage and pertinacity just last semester. My friends were determined that we were going sightseeing on Veteran’s Day. Our trip was to the National Museum of African American History and Culture across from the Monument in DC. I remember feeling so heavy in the midst of the Till Section of the African-American History Exhibition. How could someone deal with such a tragic and gruesome loss, tears fell like rain as I read her pain translated to words. Some people would have paralyzed by such grief and anger, but not Mamie Elizabeth Till-Mobley. She rose from the ashes like a phoenix and decided that her beloved son’s death would not have been in vain and so a revolution began. She did the unthinkable-Mamie held an open-casket funeral service for her son, inviting civilians from all over the world to see what they had done to her beautiful 14 year old boy and how now more than ever, they needed to take a stand against injustice from white supremacists. Her role in democratic leadership in the Black community made way for a significant increase in National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) membership and protesting of the Missouri Outcome. Months after Till’s actions, Rosa Parks decided not to get up and a young man by the name of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. shook the foundations of the anti-black agenda in the United States.
“Leadership is the art of meeting the needs of others and empowering them to realize their potential, in individual, collective and institutional settings.”
-Kallion Leadership, Inc.
Within aspects of both Raskin and Till’s trauma-infused story, we find where their actions sought to not to only empower others but to also bring a sense of solace to others. To those that struggle to grieve the loss of a child, they see you. For those that believe the foundations of American livelihood and democracy have been dismantle, they hear you. For those that need help working through the trauma that horrendous situations like Black injustice and violent attacks on American democracy, they have tried to empower you as much as they can. Personally, I look at their actions and wish I could find the strength to deal with hardships of life the way they could. They are a standard that many people should try to hold themselves up to. We should towards how aware and open Raskin is with his emotions and how selfless he aspires to be. Look towards how inclusive and gratifying they both were in the sharing of their stories in efforts allowing people to allow others to aid them. Throughout her lifetime, Till spoke heavily on how much her strength in faith and family helped her to press on. In The Preface and Prologue of Unthinkable, Raskin introduces us to his family and Julie Tagen, his Chief of Staff that I see as his ‘there-there’ person.
For the second week of classes, we worked on our Leadership Sketches and as an exercise we were asked to discuss the idea of a truth-seeker. Looking back, I was a bit scrambled with the idea of who I may consider a truth-seeker. However, as I reflected on the many movies and series I binge in my free time, I realized how many of them there are. The first character that came to mind was Sam Winchester, the Hell-proclaimed Antichrist in the Supernaturals. I saw a truth-seeker to be anyone that embodied curiosity and justice in any aspect of life that they came across. Someone that sought to empower the world the world in a beautiful way with their hunger for knowledge. Someone that epitomized selflessness and didn’t seek to leave impact for the opportunity of gaining praise, but for leaving a meaningful impact. In my eyes, Sam Winchester was definitely a truth-seeker. But, as the discussion moved on so many more came to mind as my perspectives opened up by the brilliance of my classmates’ opinions. Robert Langdon from the book series Angels & Demons and the Da Vinci Code was a truth-seeker. The dynamic trio that was Harry James Potter, Hermione Jean Granger and Ronald Bilius Weasley were all truth-seekers- can you tell that I am a HP lover ? But, teachers, lawyers and philosophers were all truth-seekers. Thomas Bloom Raskin was a truth seeker, even in his dying wish he asked for his family to look out for the interest of the global poor. His father, James Raskin was a truth-seeker and may his impact touch hearts and may the memories of his son sing him sweet lullabies to bed.
