A few weeks ago the heat at school broke down. We scrambled to move our classrooms into another building on campus. I loaded my little easel cart with its plentiful buckets and charts and shelves and proceeded to roll it up the hill - a relatively small hill, but a hill nonetheless. A 4th grade student offered to help me. We made it about 25 feet before hitting the first bump. We successfully maneuvered the wheels through the cracks and crevices another 10 feet before losing a wheel. We shifted positions and hoisted the cart up another 10 feet, with about 25 to go. Nope, another wheel was lost. At that point the 4th grader stopped and said, "Mrs. Miles, I think we need to call for backup." He was so sincere and so serious, but I just laughed, a real hearty laugh. I knew that all the teachers and administrators and maintenance were working like crazy to get everyone moved up this literal mountain before all the kids arrived in about 3 minutes. I feel bad about my response. "Yes, I think we should call for backup! Do you know anyone? Do we have any superheroes? Batman? Spiderman?" Even writing this, I feel so badly for my reaction. But 4th grader, said, "Oh, Mrs. Miles, you're funny," and he said it with the same seriousness he had before. We both realized we couldn't make it, that the easel was damaged and it would take a superhero to help us. Backup was called and backup fixed the problem.
My son is a new police officer. He depends on backup everyday. Backup is what supports the entire network of his job. In our family, it's the same way. One person is sick, you call for backup. One person's car dies, you call for backup. Someone needs a ride, you call for backup. Moving? Backup. At work too, a teacher is sick, a kid needs extra help, the copier is jammed, you call for backup. Backup keeps a lot of things flowing like they should. And then of course, there are those you would never call for backup. The people you cannot depend on in an emergency who would only make things worse. "Not my backup", my son would say of the late arrivals, the jokesters, the slackers. Life and death moments do not allow for indifference, ignorance, or apathy, or Ego.
Our democracy was founded with the idea of Backup. Three branches of government backing each other up so that a balanced system would always check each other and create a world of justice, tranquility, and freedom. I've been thinking a lot about the values of our country. Yes, we know "these truths are self-evident," but do we look at the rest of that Constitution?
We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness. That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness.
Safe. and Happy. The funny thing is I wonder what would have happened if I had Backed Up a little bit before trudging up that mountain with my easel cart. I could have gone in another door where the sidewalk is smoother and more consistent. I could have slowed down a bit and figured out a better path. It's important to Back Up sometimes before we just push ahead and instead say, "Wait, back up a second. What is going on?"
I wish that our democracy could do that too. Please back up a second and take a look at what is going on. We are losing our country and our freedoms. We are losing our respect and abdicating our responsibility. Before you keep going, saying the same things over and over again, slow down and look at what is happening. This is not good. You don't need to push ahead saying, "It's just fine, it's fine." It is not fine.
I wish more people would realize that they need to be the Backup. They need to do their jobs supporting our democracy right now. We have a government that is out of control and the wheels are falling off. It's time for the rest of us to step up and carry the burdens of whatever mess has been made. It may actually get worse for a time. But we need Backup, the real deal, the kind that says, "Mrs. Miles, I will help you." If a fourth grader can do it, the adults in our country can too.
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