Two American Funerals and a Single Unmistakable Message: RESPECT!
At the start of the Labor Day weekend, just before the highly consequential U.S. November 2018 mid-term elections move into high gear, we have experienced the highly public funerals of two iconic Americans whose values are a reminder of the ‘better angels’ of our national character.
The Singer and the Politician
Aretha Franklin and Senator John McCain could not have had more different origins or life stories.
The world-famous singer-songwriter who was born in the segregated South and grew up in a gospel music and activism filled African-American preacher’s family in Detroit.
The privileged scion of a well-to-do career military family, distantly related to George Washington and other American presidents, who was prominent in national political life as a conservative and a Republican.
I wasn’t among the throngs of stars, dignitaries and fans who gathered at Greater Grace Temple in Detroit on August 31 to celebrate with exuberance the glorious music of the ‘The Queen of Soul’ — sometimes referred to as the ‘sound track’ of the U.S. civil rights and women’s liberation movements.
Nor was I on the invitation list of political luminaries and public figures from across the political spectrum who filled the National Cathedral in Washington, D.C. on September 1 for a solemn farewell to the courageous war hero and principled ‘maverick’ politician — who consistently and passionately worked across party lines on issues he believed in.
The Spirit of Respect
But as I watched video footage and news reports of the twin funerals, hearing the eulogies, remembrances and reflections on these seemingly unconnected lives, I felt a powerful common spirit emanating from both events. A balm and inspiration for our badly wounded nation, so at war with itself and the rest of the world, so alienated from our highest ideals of inclusion, fairness, opportunity and belief in the future.
This spirit is best expressed in the title of Aretha Franklin’s unforgettable theme song: R-E-S-P-E-C-T. At both funerals, as the significant contributions were recounted, the stories told, and the tributes made to character, it was about lives that had been guided by a fundamental and unshakable commitment to respect.
Respect for others regardless of their background, race, ethnicity, gender, economic status, national origin, citizenship.
Respect for those with whom you disagree even as you fiercely argue and fight for what you believe is right.
Respect for the vision of America as one nation, strong through its diversity, with true ‘liberty and justice for all’.
Respect for the generations before who worked hard to take the nation forward towards fuller realization of that vision.
Respect for the institutions of self-government that make life in a democracy possible, and for the unwritten customs and norms of behavior that support them.
The bedrock belief, in Aretha’s Franklin’s own words, that “as people, we deserve respect from one another.”
Elegy for the Past?
At one level, the funerals of August 31 and September 1 may have felt like an elegy — mourning for a time when this spirit of respect in our national life was alive and more widespread, even if not universally practiced.
This sentiment of nostalgia for lost values was expressed on the The PBS Newshour by commentator David Brooks, when he described John McCain as having been more of a World War II person than a product of the 1960s, inspired above all by love of country — the nation as a whole — and relatively untouched by the culture wars and value conflicts that have fueled so much hostility and hatred between groups and political orientations in today’s America.
You also feel some of that sense of nostalgia in many of the tributes to Aretha Franklin, who swept onto the national musical scene at the height of the 1960s civil rights movement and the 1970s women’s liberation movement, at a time of great hope that things could be made better for all those scorned and marginalized, and that the arc of the moral universe would indeed ‘bend towards justice’.
A Call to Action for the Future
Nostalgia for the past in the twin funeral ceremonies was never separated, however, from exhortation to renewal and recommitment to an America that is not what it has become in the Era of Trump.
An exhortation to faith in our ability to get beyond this dark time in our history — with all the pain and suffering being inflicted on the most vulnerable members of our society, the degradation of our common life, our flight from global responsibility, and our callous indifference to the future of the planet.
An exhortation to belief that our democratic way of life and institutions will succeed in overcoming the poisonous presidency of Donald Trump and his destructive administration, know-nothing base, and craven enablers.
An exhortation expressed in the farewell statement John McCain had released shortly before his death:
“We are citizens of the world’s greatest republic, a nation of ideals, not blood and soil. We are blessed and are a blessing to humanity when we uphold and advance those ideals at home and in the world. . . We weaken our greatness when we confuse our patriotism with tribal rivalries that have sown resentment and hatred and violence in all the corners of the globe. We weaken it when we hide behind walls, rather than tear them down, when we doubt the power of our ideals, rather than trust them to be the great force for change they have always been.”
And an exhortation in the words of John McCain’s daughter Meghan in her eulogy forher father — words which caused the entire assembly in the National Cathedral to break into applause, and may become the most quoted words of this whole emotional weekend:
“The America of John McCain is generous and welcoming and bold. She’s resourceful, confident, secure. She meets her responsibilities. She speaks quietly because she’s strong. America does not boast because she has no need to. The America of John McCain has no need to be made great again because America was always great.”
August 31 and September 1, 2018 were two days when, as a nation mourning Aretha Franklin and John McCain, we actually lived the dream of a world without Donald Trump — who, in the most telling and unambiguous of rebukes, was invited to neither of the public funerals.
In remembering and celebrating the lives of the unlikely pair of icons — the African-American singer-songwriter and the Republican politician — and what they both stood for, we were uplifted and inspired to remember the true destiny to which we should be committed as a nation: R-E-S-P-E-C-T.
Now, we all need to seriously get to work on the 2018 mid-term elections, our greatest present opportunity to start reversing the immense damage done to R-E-S-P-E-C-T in America in the past two years of despotic, mean-spirited government that has catered to to and inflamed the worst in us instead of encouraging those ‘better angels’.
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Karine Schomer, PhD is a writer, speaker, scholar, and a political and social commentator. She writes on Medium at https://medium.com/@schomer44. In her essays, she explores the worlds of society, politics, culture, history, language, world civilizations and life lessons. You can read her writer’s philosophy in The Idea Factory. In her professional life, she earns her keep as a consultant at www.cmct.net and www.indiapractice.com.
