Earlier this week I wrote a post about The Politics of Change. My Mother-in-Law read it and sent me back a response about her frustration with the politics of America, the partisan and self-interested and divisive process that led us to the Health Care bill we have today. And why she was increasingly feeling as though her voice isn't heard in this political system, and that her vote didn't matter.
Katie and I don't always agree. But I believe in her heart. And I believe she matters. And that as flawed as the process is, it's easy to lose sight of progress in the vapid, political noise of today on all sides.
Here's part of my response to her this morning.
Philosophical Friday is at the end.
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Don't forget, Rosa Parks only got a seat on the bus a few years before I was born. Today Rosa Parks is the First Lady and her husband is the President. And his greatest rival to the office, whom he beat by less than one percent, was a person who ninety years ago wouldn't have been allowed to vote. A woman.
Change takes time. But once we establish a new expectation, however flawed, it becomes the platform on which the impossible can take flight. It was only 42 years between Lindbergh's flight and Armstrong's walk. And you remember how much opposition there was during Vietnam to spending money to send men to the moon. Most of the technology we use today, including the technology you and I are using to have this exchange, came from that decision.
We should want perfect change. It demands more of all of us. But when the only alternative to the status quo is imperfect change we should celebrate it for what it is. A chance to raise our sights higher.
And to expect more the next time.
