Something that was brought to my attention yesterday by a fantastic episode of the podcast “Why Is This Happening?” with Chris Hayes is the simple fact that a multiethnic, multiracial, pluralistic, representative, egalitarian democracy has never existed on this planet at any point in human history.
While we continue to stumble and miss the mark, for the last hundred years the United States of America has been the single most egalitarian nation-state in all of recorded history.
We have made tremendous missteps and mistakes as a society – nothing should ever indicate otherwise. On racial justice, gender equality, and equality of sexuality and expression, we have largely missed the mark and continue to do so in a myriad of ways.
Our job as citizens is to ensure that the project continues and that we enfranchise as many of our fellow humans as we can along the way. The project itself never ends, as is the case with any truly worthy enterprise.
The question that lies before us is this: Do we have the strength of will and the courage to continue the work?