“April is the cruelest month.” That’s what T. S. Eliot wrote.
For North Carolina, the month just ended takes that
dishonor. The capstone of our state’s cruelty: sweeping anti-LGBT legislation
passed on Mar. 23 by a specially called session of the Republican-led General
Assembly. Our governor signed the bill within hours.
No transparency. No discussion. Just discrimination, hate,
and as N.C. Policy Watch Executive Director Chris Fitzsimon writes, a “carefully
orchestrated mix of fear, fundamentalist ideology and political expediency.”
Speaking of fear, the king of fear-mongering showed up in
our town earlier in the bitter month of March. The day before the NC primary, candidate Trump
came to Hickory to elicit more media attention, solicit votes, and drive more
wedges into a polarized community. Our local university, Lenoir-Rhyne, doing its
proper free-society duty, opened its Lutheran doors for what had no prayer of
being an open discussion.
I bicycled through the campus the evening before the rally.
The company arranging the chairs on the stage for our national Titanic was
named, “It’s My Party.” If those three words do not describe this man’s
approach to our democracy, what does?
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| Trump supporters line up in the early morning fog. |
Our town's Trump event, carefully choreographed by his hate handlers,
was more peaceful than others. There were confrontations, yes, arrests and
injuries, but they were modest compared with Chicago, Fayetteville, and others. I credit this relative peacefulness to our rally’s organizers
– professors, staff, and students -- and to the Lutherans.
I’ve never seen so many clerical collars in one place. When the clergy started arriving, like swallows to Capistrano, I was comforted. And, this flock sings, knows all the words, and even brings songsheets for the rest of us. Vastly outnumbered by the supporters in line to see Trump, protesters – young and old, black and white -- stood in front of the school’s Grace Chapel and sang, creating a harmonious counterpart to the Trump line that snaked across and around the campus.
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| In front of Lenoir-Rhyne University's Grace Chapel |
I had to leave early – yes, I missed the main event –
because I teach in the mountains on Mondays and Wednesdays. The fog shrouding
Hickory lifted as I traveled farther away from the cloud Mr. Trump brings
wherever he goes.
Days later, the darkness returned with the NC general
assembly’s hateful legislation. I thought the dark planet was fiction in
Madeleine L’Engle’s A Wrinkle in Time. Instead, North Carolina seems to be competing for the Camazotz title.
Yet, Hickory's own Mrs. Whatsit -- Garrison Keillor -- arrived yesterday
evening to fight the dark thing at the same auditorium that hosted Donald Trump
and his acolyte Chris Christie.
A packed house. Keillor ambled on stage, which held only a
wooden stool. He arrived early, before the start time, before the announcements, before the formal
introductions. With flapping jacket and baggy pants, in a red tie and red
socks, before our eyes, he became a human pitch pipe. He hummed. He started singing “My County
Tis of Thee.” We all – 1,450 souls – joined in. We sang another song. And then
another. We sang “The Battle Hymn of the Republic” the national anthem, and ended
our prelude with the Beatles’ “I Saw Her Standing There.” The audience members over 60, much of the crowd, knew those lyrics.
Our unaccompanied voices created a cleansing. No, this could not be the same hall that housed hate just days before. It was sacred, a
place of harmony not discord. Sure, there were jokes about not being trumped and
about restrooms, given the new NC law, but the gentle American humorist and
storyteller, in his sonorous radio voice, assured us we were one country. Everything would be okay. And then it was. He
transported us to Lake Woebegone with tales of a crazy uncle, a large dog, a
bowling ball urn, a pontoon boat, and more.
The fog lifted. There was light. We were united by laughter.
That’s how you bring people together … with joy and song and humor.
That’s a place where I want to live.
Note: Here’s a wonderful recent
article Garrison Keillor wrote cautioning Americans who are thinking about emigrating
if Trump becomes president.
