Under the baobab: On the most important Election Day, choose democracy

On the last day of the Constitutional Convention, Sept. 18, 1787, Elizabeth Powell, the wife of Philadelphia Mayor Samuel Powell, asked Benjamin Franklin, the seer and mentor of the Convention,

“Well Doctor what have we got, a republic or a monarchy?”

“A republic,” replied Franklin, “if you can keep it.”

Now, 235 years later we are asking the same question. Hopefully, tomorrow, on Election Day, we will answer it, a democracy. During these past weeks, I have been reminded of the importance of our democracy and the process by which it has been sustained.

We recently attended the local premiere of a deeply moving film, “Till.” It tells the story of Mamie Till-Mobley, Emmett Till’s mother, and her courageous efforts to transform the horrific reality of her son’s lynching. She helped make his life significant in the struggle for justice and freedom. It takes place in 1955 in Chicago at the beginning of the modern civil rights movement. It was one year after the first Brown v. Board of Education decision that changed nothing but the law. The decision had no effect on the lives of Black people who remained oppressed in a system of white supremacy. Segregation and racial discrimination were still legal in most states.

It was the same year that Rosa Parks was arrested for not giving up her seat to a white man on a segregated bus in Montgomery, Alabama. It was 10 years before John Lewis was attacked crossing of the Edmund Pettus Bridge. The governors of Southern states were admitted bigots and proud of it. Most Black folks in the South were not allowed to register to vote. Thousands, perhaps millions, of white Americans were active or inactive sympathizers with the KKK. African Americans, particularly in the South, lived in fear of white terrorism, lynching, unpunished public violence. As a child I was taught to be docile in the presence of white people if I wanted to survive.

Fortunately, there were thousands of Black and white folks who risked their lives and livelihoods to protest against that corrupt racist system. Out of their struggles emerged the modern civil rights movement, which began to transform our country and propel our society toward the democratic ideal for which we struggled.

After the film, we went to the School of Theatre’s opening of “Cabaret,” a wonderful production and another transforming experience. It showed the subtle rise of the Nazi movement during the decay of the Weimar Republic in the ‘30s. Good and decent people partied on, ignoring the signs of the political pestilence infecting their society. For those of you familiar with the film starring Liza Minelli, this is not that somewhat pleasant semi-saccharine vehicle for Liza’s tremendous vocal talents and idiosyncrasies. Rather SOT’s director, Chaz Wolcott, using the splendid talents of his young actors, crafted a profound statement of how evil can proliferate when people don’t pay attention. Thea Celey, Chloe Evans, Alex Wind, Jimin Moon and the ever-present Matthew Federok as the emcee delicately “wove a web which entangled us all.” In the last moment of the play, the always jovial Federok stripped down to his concentration camp uniform and walked into the brightly lit oven of his and our mortality. Suddenly we recall the Nazis who have been creeping around the stage at the edge of reality. But it is too late. Evil has triumphed.

For us it is not too late. Tomorrow is the most important Election Day of our lifetime. We have a choice between democracy and tyranny, of those who choose a republic and those who would undermine our democracy by denying the veracity and integrity of its fundamental procedure.

Sisters and brothers, we still have a republic. Let’s keep it.