Finding a little courage

In the wake of the wildest week on Wall Street, after hundreds of Executive Orders and slapping tariffs with reckless abandon, Americans and allies are fearful of the resulting economy.

 Poorly thought-out policy is wrecking our reputation. Now it is wrecking our economy. Who can stop this or at least slow it down? Our Congress is a co-equal branch of the government. Can they find enough courage to say, “No more!”

 Senator Cory Booker displayed courage in a 25-hour feat of “good trouble,” stating his case against the actions of President Trump. Deportations with no due process. Shuttering of agencies like Head Start. Messing with the VA.

 Now that Dr. Oz is confirmed, our country’s Health and Human Services power sweep is complete. They can shut down most everything. Our Congress is letting them do it. Capitulating their authority to give a small and mean man his way. Trump is running this country like a mobster. America will be a completely different place if the chaos continues at the rate it has the first 100 days. Even I could not imagine how bad this could get so bad so quickly. And I read Project 2025.

 The assault on Law Firms and Judges is a different kettle of fish. The rule of law is what keeps America a free country. Supposedly no one is above it. That is being tested daily.

 In small numbers Republican Senators are beginning to vote with courage. Collins, Murkowski, McConnell, and Rand – a surprising foursome – voted with Democrats to end tariffs against Canada.  Other legislation is being introduced daily to slow the recklessness, but until Congress steps up to represent all of us, our troubles will magnify.

 Bishop Mariann Edgar Budde’s book, How We Learn to Be Brave tells her own story of growing in courage. One of the people in my book club that was reading it said, “If you just read the chapter titles, you get the gist of the book.” My favorite chapter title is, “Stepping up to the plate.”

 We saw her practice what she writes on the National Day of Prayer, following the Inauguration of President Trump. She called on him to “have mercy.” Bishop Budde stepped up to the pulpit and met a moment of truth with courage and fearlessness. He called her “nasty.”

 Budde writes, “Stepping up to the plate when you aren’t ready is the price of beginning. It’s what you must do time and time again. You show up, take your place, step up to the plate. Swing and miss. Swing and miss until one day you make contact.”

 The Cowardly Lion needed courage. His trip to Oz with Dorothy and the others was off to see the Wizard. When the Wizard gives Cowardly Lion a medal for bravery, the Wizard tells him he has shown bravery all along. All of us have the capacity of braveness. Too many of us leave it hidden.

We have three co-equal branches of our government – The Presidency, The Congress and the Judiciary. When one branch suppresses and coerces the other two branches, our democracy is in trouble, and this is not good trouble!

 People are filling the streets of cities around the country shouting, “Hands Off.” The protest movement and resistance is growing. It’s a lot like what we saw in the 1960s. It will become harder and harder to ignore.

 Congressmen are hiding from their constituents. They are not showing up at Town Halls, finding too difficult to defend the actions of a rogue president. Fear has a firm grip on them. Regrettably so. Retribution is the name of the game.

 Be afraid of what the big bad bully can do to you. Be afraid that you will lose your next election. Be afraid of accountability to your voters. Fear is crippling and it’s hard watching it control our government.

 Senators like Lindsay Graham, Ted Cruz, and our own Thom Tillis look so weak in their roles now. They are not standing up to wrong when I believe they know what is right. They are afraid and fear is attacking their ability to speak truth and step up to the plate. If they think they will be remembered for great statesmanship, they need to think again.

 Rachel Cohen is a young attorney who recently resigned from Skadden Arps Law Firm. Skadden is one of the firms that capitulated to Donald Trump’s intimidation campaign.. The firm has pledged $100 million dollars of pro bono work on behalf of the president. Cohen said, “I will not allow fear to manifest as silence. I choose courage.”

 Rachel Cohen, not unlike Cassidy Hutchinson, shows us what courage looks like. Voices like hers just might jar us into reckoning with own fear and find that our own courage was here all the time.

 Lib Campbell is a retired Methodist pastor, retreat leader, columnist and host of the blogsite www.avirtualchurch.com. She can be contacted at libcam05@gmail.com