Do the Right Thing

"Do the Right Thing" - and other Mythical Movie Titles

It's funny how history sometimes loops back around on itself. In a time where we are again litigating and agitating about racial injustice, it is interesting that even the Academy Awards can participate.

Spike Lee, the filmmaker with a unique vision for storytelling has been nominated for Best Picture for his film, BlacKkKlansman. Thirty years ago, he was similarly nominated for his film "Do the Right Thing."

I am not aiming to discuss the merits of either film - and certainly not the merits of the Academy Awards as social or moral commentary. But, what I do intend to consider with you is the idea of doing the right thing.

I'm not sure why I have been obsessed throughout my life with the topic. It could be that I was raised in a time and place, i.e. - the 1960's in the Bible-Belt South, that in many ways was in the eye of the storm that was the Civil Rights Movement. It was a time when the N-word was not even considered racist by most southerners. I heard it often and not always as a pejorative. For the white men (mostly) I heard use the term, they simply used it as an adjective to better identify the person to whom they were referring.

It could be that - being raised by parents who were at the least socially ignorant and at the worst mentally ill - I was seeking some sort of solid ground on which to stand amidst the storm and flood of the time. Certainly, my mother's diagnosis of bi-polar disorder during my teen years - would have been remarkably helpful to a young boy trying to navigate the moods and direction that changed as frequently as the Nashville weather.

I think, at first, my compulsion to do the right thing resulted from my fear of hell-fire - a torment vividly and frequently described by both Sunday school teachers and Church of Christ preachers. I think, too, my fixation on "saving the lost" was not so much borne out of an actual concern for their avoidance of that same fire as much as it was by my understanding (provided by the same preachers and teachers previously mentioned) that "you can't get to heaven without taking someone with you."

I will - for the sake of brevity - skip over the unique torment of puberty as a tormented teenage boy - for whom do the right thing was an ever changing kaleidoscope of do's and don'ts and move onward to my struggles as a young adult.

Just yesterday, I was recounting to my daughter the story of my early forays into fighting for women's rights in the church of my youth. I remember vividly - a Sunday afternoon meeting to debate and decide if the Bible would allow the women of the church to join the men in serving Sunday Communion to the congregation.

For those of you who know me well - you will have no trouble imagining the fervor and fury with which I argued that my Christian sisters had every right to participate as fully as I in the Family of God. I still remember the chuckles and dismissive comments of the older men (the entire discussion was led by white men) as they disregarded both my passion and my perspective.

I also recall my shock and disorientation when I learned that one of the elders of this church - who also was a partner in the accounting firm in which I worked - was widely regarded by the young women of that firm as a lecher. Imagine my horror as I listened to the stories of the drunken groping of my female colleagues at the firm Christmas party by the same man who would help decide whether women could serve communion to me on Sundays.

The mythology of America always revolves around "American Exceptionalism" and the admonition of the founding fathers that America should stand as a "city set upon a hill" - a shining example of truth and freedom to a dark and oppressed world.

Surely, there are examples of when we have fulfilled that vision - be it the Marshall Plan, the United Nations, or even the Peace Corp. We have born both men and women who have reminded us of that vision when we have often forgotten and strayed from it.

But, more times than not, we have failed in that quest both individually and collectively. If you have not read Dr. King's Letter from Birmingham CIty Jail, then you may not understand the disappointment he felt in realizing his fellow (but, white) Baptist preachers would not come to his defense or his aid.

If you have not read The Pentagon Papers - officially titled Report of the Office of the Secretary of Defense Vietnam Task Force, you may not realize how often and how brazenly our leaders lie to us. A 1996 article in The New York Times reported that the Pentagon Papers had demonstrated, among other things, that the Johnson Administration "systematically lied, not only to the public but also to Congress".

If you have not already seen it, I highly recommend the 2017 movie The Post. It dramatizes the battle between the Washington Post and the Nixon Administration to publish the full text of the report which had been stolen and provided to the Post by one Daniel Ellsberg.

And speaking of movies, let's not forget the 2015 movie Spotlight, that recounts the true story of the Boston Globe's expose' of the horrific sexual abuse of Boston-area children by Catholic priests over several decades - a scandal made worse by the long-term coverup and tacit approval of the Church's senior leaders.

I could go on and on about how often I yearned for and searched in vain for anyone - or any movement - that I could believe in. Any one or anything I could trust to - in that time of trial and testing - to do the right thing.

Whether it is Bill Cosby, Harvey Weinstein, or Dr. Larry Nassar - or the innumerable cast of evil enablers that allowed not only them, but thousands more that we cannot know - to abuse, assault and terrorize women and young girls for years - need I say more for you to feel the utter despair that I feel in looking for anyone who will do the right thing.

Today, however, the sun is finally out. The flood waters in East Tennessee are in some places beginning to recede. I wish I could tell you that I believe that the darkness that has spread across America in the past few years is similarly receding.

I wish I believed that there are leaders in the Republican Party who have the moral courage to stand up to the pathological liar of a president they elected. I wish I believed that - as plastics poison our waters and toxic chemicals corrupt our food supply - that there are leaders in the EPA who will fight for those that cannot defend themselves.

I wish I believed this, and I wish I could comfort you with some good news. I cannot.

But, what I can tell you is this. That young boy, that young man, and now the older and marginally wiser man who continues to struggle ever so imperfectly to do the right thing - will not surrender.

Because to surrender - as so many have - means either to numb myself completely with a socially-acceptable addiction - or to become so angry and cynical as to believe that there is nothing left to fight for.

I will not. I cannot. So, what does that really mean? For me, it means I will no longer pretend that this is normal. I will no longer be satisfied with doing what I have always done. I have to do something different. I have to speak and I have to fight.

I have to care and I have to love. Fervently. Imperfectly. Humbly.

But fight I will. Stay tuned.

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