Who Shall Lead Us?

As I started to write this I thought about the notion that a ”Child Shall Lead us.” Isaiah 11.6 “A little child shall lead them. Bringing together the wolf, the leopard, the young lion, the lamb, the kid and the calf” Johnny Cash sings a great song about how the lion will lie down with the lamb. It demonstrates that the problem of who shall lead is a very old one indeed. That dream of all of us working together is also very old and obviously not a very successful one. But we keep trying. Is that what’s going on now with the Washington Mall as the jousting place for who shall lead?

It now seems we are in a time of “who can get the most people to the Lincoln Memorial Mall in the Nations Capital?” I had mentioned in a previous blog that I had worked with Bayard Rustin back in August of 1963 to get 400 Mobilization for Youth kids down there and back. We had that once in a lifetime experience of hearing a most memorable speech.”I Have A Dream.” Never ever to be forgotten. The March was organized around the theme of jobs. Martin Luther King emerged as “our leader.” That's what Beck reffered to as his objective. For him to inherit the King legacy. Talk about hutspa?

It is now 45 years later and we are being subject to a lets see who can get the most people down there to show who is the leader. Far cry from the 1963 March. Most pundits thought Glenn Beck was going to turn his gathering into a right wing political rally. Instead he got religion and turned it into lets get our old values back campaign. And to finally defeat Woodrow Wilson. The former President is Beck’s favorite villain. He blames him for the start of the progressive government. “Progressive” is one of Beck’s watchwords signifying dangerous communists who want to steal your individual rights.

Last Saturday a group of Community and Union organizations took over the Mall for a demonstration called “One Nation Working Together.” Who exactly were they referring to as “working together?” The lion and the lamb? The rally sponsors included the NAACP, the AFofL CIO, Sierra Club, National Council of LaRaza. A pretty good representation of the old New Deal coalition or what’s left of it. From what I could find in the various news outlets no leader emerged from that gathering. Because that gathering had no sponsors from television I am certain very few of us knew it was happening. Wow, it’s is amazing to see how television is dominates every corner of our political lives.

Shall the comedians lead us? Jon Stewart and Stephen Colbert from Comedy Central are taking on Beck with their call for a Washington Mall Day on October 30th. Their themes are. “Rally to Restore Sanity Jon Stewart. ‘March to Keep Fear Alive” Stephen Colbert. Their rallies are suppose to be competitive but I don’t get exactly how that is supposed to come off. Maybe something like dueling banjos? Stewart starts out and Colbert answers or what? But for now I wonder will one of them emerge as the leader on the left? A very sad commentary as to where this country of ours is trying to go.

In the meantime across Europe the street demonstrations for jobs and against pay cuts have been sponsored by unions. The leadership of the European Labor organizations are the leaders of the struggle for jobs and security for their members.

For as long as I can remember there has been this notion of American exceptionalism. That was the idea that we, the U.S. were not like other capitalist countries. Our Blue Collar, working class, in contrast to European workers, never seemed to see themselves as a class. I was forever explaining to my European friends that we are economic but not class conscious. That is again what I now see being acted out both here and in Europe. What will it take to create a mass movement in the U.S. for workers rights? Or is that just something in my sweet memory of things long gone? I would love to know what some of my old union buddies think about this? Who, or when will leaders emerge in a new invigorated progressive left?