A Leap of Faith

Updated: Oct 11, 2020

Matt K. McClure

I never really realized I was so passionate about the law. But I guess I hadn't thought about what the law really does as a young man. I think in some small way, what happened to that boy is that he became a lot more passionate about the safety of other people and would eventually decide he was going to fight for some semblance of right and wrong. As he became less sheltered from truths and less naive that young man started to understand that people were not all treated the same. I believe he might begin to think he might stop the slaughter. It seemed futile looking back now from the outside into his past, but maybe it wasn't.

Maybe he was remembering - or reminding this young boy that he should recall that there is ingrained order that we were all taught before this storm of plagues would disrupt all our lives. That when chaos is ordered, that order will ensue, resistance will confront him, and there will be a price to pay for stepping in front of it.

We were reminded by the brave that people aren't going to lay down to die; we were shown that everyone would have to face reality from each of us in close quarters and face to face. He was not just going to lob disease-ridden blankets over a wall, never to be witnessed. There would be a reality to face, and he did.

It's all sad, every bit of all of it - all that has come to America. And though it seems like something that has never happened before. It has happened many many times throughout our country's history. It is just so ugly to live through that we don't want to believe this about us.

There is so much happening at the same time it is hard to bear for some, but we will get through this. And though it's hard to hear, admit, or accept the inevitability of all this, it was not unpredictable - this was going to come to us, I am sorry if you did not see it. I fully predicted all of this in near exacting detail in 2014. All the signs and vulnerabilities were there to see if people had been prepared to see it.

These were a growing symptom of many unresolved systematic issues of a country that grow tall too fast and never fully grow up. The successes came too fast and were built on egregious improprieties that were a hollow foundation and significant social issues like slavery, indentured servitude, monopolies, abuse of power, and bureaucratic malfeasance.

Until we all truly have the same opportunities and voice, it is more than evident that we are never going to be the whole of that grand design or as great a people as we suggest we are. It will be the greatest waste of great potential of a brilliant idea and a singularly immaculate experiment that was ever worth fighting for. But for the point of it is not in what sides we took, the point of this experiment was that there were supposed to be different ideas.

There were not supposed to be "sides" to America or parts of being American, which is the current failure of what is being drawn in the sand. A man is attempting to draw those lines between us and is asking Americans to divide us, not just our ideas but the idea in itself. This has been by design and is not of us, but at us.

We've been attacked from the inside- but not an American derivative, an external design from the start - from before 2012 - But we are not left without armament; we have what they will never have, this malleable masterwork of our living and breathing Constitution.

Our Constitution has the built-in ability to defend itself and its own ideal because it is not a map or a script. It is a guide for the people to follow. Like no ruling document, it can evolve and flex and bend with the times. I believe that possibly one of the world's most eloquent mechanisms of living poetry ever written in the history of mankind.

Its economy is unparalleled and written for the masses. It's masterfully simple in word and comprehensively complex ln the sheer weight of its meaning and ambition - a testament to its hope and confidence in fellow Americans, a masterwork.

The reason it can breathe life into society is its fervent and covalent bond not only with the people it represents but with the people that come and go without ever wavering from its foundation.

This is its greatest built-in support system and its masterful ideology, in that as long as there are Americans to fight for it, this idea can never die. This beautiful piece of machinery runs on us.

Its foundation may be shaken, but it cannot be broken when the people fight for it. There is nothing in the world that can undermine this, but ourselves, as the 'people' are its core and are its first ...and last defense.

This is not the first time it has come down to us fighting for it, and it is not going to be the last. This fight is intended and written directly into it, and it is the Post that Americans must man always, it does and will not function unless guarded and defended. It is apparent that we are not done fighting nor, will we ever be, nor shall we ever stop.

It makes me sad our most vulnerable have to live through this turmoil all at once. And that in this, so many could even be embarrassed by it and live without dignity. But most of all, what I understand about all this is that what is happening to us right now is that we are fighting against.

I am watching us stand and fight, and that makes me proud. I am not proud of all Americans right now but proud of what America is, what it means, and worth fighting for. What is occurring right in front of us right now - is that fight.

I happen to think, or maybe just want to believe, that the default reaction of that man who charged that gunman with nothing but a skateboard was something singularly observable in what is ingrained so deeply in America and Americans are bred to defend and in this is others.

America was not meant to isolate itself but to be tested of its mettle, to bear witness to our strength, which can only be observed in its duality and by contrast, and so as we were created of all of the worlds, the world should look to us to lead.

We witness all these challenges and chaos and forget what we have been through. I am not talking about momentary breaks from the order as chaos; these are just cyclical algorithms built into change - what I would like to commit to within myself is that what that man did, was American, but unfortunately, so was the gunman - He is just as much who we are right now as well in this place we have become. It is all part of the symptoms of an uglier side of America we are all experiencing from each side - we have not yet evolved from or defeated these things we say we are better than.

America has a long way to go, and so am I to truly be as we all prescribe to be - but I think we may get there. It is each of our responsibilities to man our shift at the Post when it's our turn, and if we do not fight too, it is nothing but a quill to parchment or our pen on-page.

What we witnessed in this America was the reaction to what we were taught about ourselves. We told ourselves we were these things because we believed in America, and we were right to. We were taught to ride with this lantern, declaring the fight through the darkest of nights, but the catalyst has clearly not yet completed its range or set to its full effect.

I will mourn these losses, accept them, that I might fight another day to honor them. But I will not accept the fact that we will ever be done with this fight - this fight doesn't just end. Accept this reality because finishing is just not how this works.

Power is not a gift from the powerful - it is fought and sought for, and so we fight.

"Heart of Oakland" Blog: Matt K. McClure