A Remarkable Speech

I don’t usually like to write about political happenings in our country and the world, but 1) I see danger signs in the United States of our freedom of creativity being threatened, and 2) something remarkable happened during the inauguration the week before last that was truly inspiring: a woman spoke up when she had the chance.

Mariann Edgar Budde is an American prelate of the Episcopal Church. She has served as the bishop of Washington since November 2011, according to Wikipedia. As such, she serves as spiritual leader for eighty-six Episcopal congregations and ten Episcopal schools in the District of Columbia and four Maryland counties.

You can read the entire speech here. (I urge you to also consider subscribing to the Guardian.) But the interesting and frankly, astonishing way (keep in mind she was fairly close to where the President and Vice President sat in the front row) she ended it went like this:

“Let me make one final plea, Mr. President. Millions have put their trust in you and, as you told the nation yesterday, you have felt the providential hand of a loving God. In the name of our God, I ask you to have mercy upon the people in our country who are scared now. There are gay, lesbian and transgender children in Democratic, Republican, and Independent families, some who fear for their lives. The people who pick our crops and clean our office buildings; who labor in poultry farms and meat packing plants; who wash the dishes after we eat in restaurants and work the night shifts in hospitals. They…may not be citizens or have the proper documentation. But the vast majority of immigrants are not criminals. They pay taxes and are good neighbors. They are faithful members of our churches and mosques, synagogues, gurudwaras* and temples. I ask you to have mercy, Mr. President, on those in our communities whose children fear that their parents will be taken away. And that you help those who are fleeing war zones and persecution in their own lands to find compassion and welcome here. Our God teaches us that we are to be merciful to the stranger, for we were all once strangers in this land. May God grant us the strength and courage to honor the dignity of every human being, to speak the truth to one another in love and walk humbly with each other and our God for the good of all people. Good of all people in this nation and the world. Amen.”

When Bishop Budde was asked if she was sorry she spoke to the President this way, she replied that she was never hesitant or apologetic when asking for mercy.

I have written before about the Ten Stages of Genocide, and it seems like some of those in places of power are approaching the Stage Four or Five area (discrimination and dehumanization, as with the unfounded claim that immigrants are eating our pets), and with more evidence each day that they are intensifying the things that push us up the ladder. However, with each instance of a push up, there is a gathering force to push back down again. The ACLU (American Civil Liberties Union) for example has begun multiple lawsuits challenging the administration in the first two weeks of its existence.

We have been through this before in our history, and our democracy has always held. To do so, we need more like Reverend Budde in place to courageously speak the truth to those in power.

*a Sikh place of worship

Pamela Bayard Foard is the author of the children’s book, “Giselle and the Little Idea”. Learn more here.

Photo artwork by Lawrence D’Attilio ©2024