The Fabric of Idealism

As I write this, on 9/11/25, I am in New York City attending my 99 year old mother as she not very gently traverses her final phase of life. She was born in 1926 to Ukrainian (then Russian) and Hungarian immigrant parents who had emigrated to this country earlier in the 20^th century, escaping pogroms and persecution. She grew up in Brooklyn, near Ebbetts field, and luckily, has lived in the same elegant Manhattan apartment for more than 60 years. She is a person who has resolutely defied change, still thrives on conflict, and no longer has the bandwidth to follow current events, and would never describe herself as idealistic.

It is a beautiful, cloudless, blue-sky day in the Big Apple, much like that day at the start of the 21^st century that started this century off, not with a bang, but with a cataclysm. Today, in New York, ceremonies of remembrance will be held to commemorate those lost on 9/11. Reading the front page of the NY Times, we could be holding ceremonies of remembrance for our idealism.

The Juxtoposition of today’s headlines is sobering. Israel bombs Hamas in Doha, Qatar, eviscerating, for now, hopes of peace. Russian drones cross into Poland, which invokes Nato article 4 and scrambles fighter jets to shoot them down. A radical, conservative, overtly racist, sexist activist, venerated by the Right is assassinated while talking about gun violence at a Utah University and students at a High School in Colorado are shot in yet another mass shooting. And, the current occupant of the White House, clearly emboldened by a Supreme Court ruling rendering him immune for committing crimes as President, orders the destruction of a boat off Venezuela killing its unknown occupants, breaching all norms of international and US law.

Since 9/11, violence has been the refrain of the 21^st century. At home and abroad, chaos has been the defining condition, spawning a spasmodic regression of authoritarianism and political violence. We have not been immune. I won a seat in Congress running against the misguided war in Iraq, a war built on a fabric of official lies and deception. The 9/11 attack brought the world together for a brief moment in condemnation of horrific political violence. The War in Iraq and its aftermath, tore the thin fabric of that idealism apart.

Now, political violence in our country starts at the very top. Donald Trump began his political ascendancy proudly boasting he could shoot someone on 5^th Avenue and get away with it. The Supreme Couty has allowed him to make good on his boast. The MAGA culture of extremism, authoritarianism, racism, and violence has now permeated our society with a rotten stench of hypocrisy and smuggery that struts like only a dictator knows how. The Right is silent when a Minnesota Legislator is gunned down but plans to celebrate the life of a right-wing provocateur. Prayers are offered by the Right after every mass shooting but nothing is done. Trump coddles Putin, or Putin cuddles Trump and violence escalates in Ukraine. Trump claims kinship with Netanyahu and Netanyahu escalates in Gaza and beyond. With impunity and apparent immunity, Trump blows up a boat on the high seas to show that no one, nowhere is safe. Armed troops roam the streets of our cities and Trump with his new Department of War declares war on Chicago. Left wing, Right Wing, No wing, a culture of violence has torn holes into the fabric of our idealism.

Peace is not weak. Peace requires strength of character. Peace requires recognition of universal truths binding all of humanity as we bob through space and time on a little blue ball in a vast cosmos. Where are the peacemakers when we need them? I idealistically hold fast to the belief that peace will ultimately prevail. How? because the moral arc of the universe is indeed long. I no longer expect to see peace in my time but, as strained as the fabric of my own idealism has become, I am resolute. I am determined to take a step back from cynicism and rage. I am willing to confront my own turmoil and base instincts and pause to contemplate the higher ground. There is a higher ground and we can reach it. It will not be easy. It will not be immediate, but what we can envision, we can make real. Keep the faith.