by Mara Richards Bim
Shared histories and the need to remember (literally to re-member or re-assemble) is vital to our spiritual lives as human beings.
Re-membering is particularly resonant during this time of year when so many of the world’s religions pause to gather and participate in acts of spiritual remembrance.
- Muslims just concluded the month of Ramadan (Feb 28—Mar 29) in which they remember the Quran’s revelation to the Prophet Mohammed.
- Hindus just celebrated Hanuman Jayanti (Apr 12) remembering the birth of Bhagwan Hanuman, the deity who embodies strength, devotion, wisdom and righteousness.
- Jews are in the midst of Passover (Apr 12—Apr 20) in which they remember their ancestors fleeing from Egyptian captivity toward a promised land.
- Christians are in the midst of Eastertide (Mar 5—Apr 20) in which they remember the life, death and miraculous resurrection of Jesus.
In our religious lives, acts of remembering are more than cognitive exercises. To remember is to relive sacred moments through some combination of practices like fasting, purification, reading sacred texts, prayer, devotion, acts of service, gathering in community and feasting. Reliving these moments connects us with the meaning of life beyond our own mortality.
Our spiritual ancestors preserved these stories of faith for future generations whom they would never meet–sometimes in the midst of persecution and at great personal cost. Year after year we walk in their footsteps intentionally recalling, recreating, remembering and reliving the faith we share with them.
Our communities of faith are charged with preserving and passing on their histories, and our country is, too.
As Americans we have inherited the ideals, principles and practices enshrined in our founding documents.
We the People of the United States, in Order to form a more perfect Union, establish Justice, insure domestic Tranquility, provide for the common defence, promote the general Welfare, and secure the Blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our Posterity, do ordain and establish this Constitution for the United States of America.
Our country has not always lived up to its ideals. Racial and ethnic minorities, women and other marginalized groups have been excluded from positions of power and prominence and their histories have been dismissed. But over the last 100 years we have been moving more intentionally toward a more perfect union.
Norms and laws have been established to validate and protect the full humanity of people who the founders did not see at all or see as full human beings. The Civil Rights Movement raised awareness of how many Americans had been historically denied equal protection under the law and access to their Constitutional inheritance. The majority of Americans agreed that that was counter to the intention of the founders, and voted to acknowledge and repair many past injustices.
We choose how, when and where to remember our shared narrative in order to understand our past, to locate our present place in the moral arc of the universe and to shape the experiences of generations to come. The intention of the founding fathers in writing the Constitution was that it would be a tool for Americans to judge their actions in the light of the laws it established, not a weapon to establish the rights of a singular minority over the interests of a diverse majority.
Which is why the current Administration’s efforts to unilaterally erase our collective history and rewrite a new fictionalized version is so alarming.
From erasing acknowledgement of the efforts of trans men and women during the Stonewall Riots to rewriting the purpose of the Underground Railroad and Harriet Tubman’s role in it, the President is orchestrating a white-washing of our history in order to “focus on the greatness of the achievements and progress of the American people.”
We cannot celebrate America’s journey toward a more perfect union without acknowledging that it has, in fact, been a journey. To erase the aspects of our history that were painful is to rewrite the story entirely. To only present the “achievements” made by white, property-owning men (the only people who were initially considered citizens in this country) is to tell an entirely different story about our national identity.
What will the lives of future generations be like if we who live today do not faithfully preserve the memory of all Americans? How can we help future generations to re-member our religiously pluralistic and ethnically diverse nation and its journey to become united under the banner of liberty?
Lotte Scharfman, a refugee who escaped from Austria during World War II, said, “Democracy is not a spectator sport.” We must do everything we can, not only to object to the erasure and rewriting of our history, but to preserve it ourselves, through the stories we tell and the actions we engage in. Our present is the next generation’s history. We will be a part of the stories they tell, and the lens through which they view this country.