A Reason to Believe_ Lessons From an Improbable Life - Deval Patrick [68]
Even at that early age, I had already sensed that I did not belong in some parts of town and that there were paths through life that were not for me. I knew that I was not liked by people I had never even met. Yet with such moral certainty and command, King made me feel not only that I was welcome at the table but that the feast was as much mine as anyone else’s. He was the consummate idealist who made us believe that we could perfect our community and our country.
Idealism is vital. It sustains the human soul. The ability to imagine a better place, a better way of doing things, a better way of being in the world is far more than wishful thinking. It is the essential ingredient in human progress.
Idealism built America. The persecuted religious refugees who set out over a vast ocean in small wooden boats with barely a notion of what awaited them in the New World were fortified mainly by an ideal of the community they wished to create. Just before some of the newest settlers arrived in New England in 1630, John Winthrop, the first governor of Massachusetts, gave an oft-quoted sermon aboard the Arbella in which he acknowledged the grand experiment they were about to launch. “For we must consider that we shall be as a city upon a hill,” he said. “The eyes of all people are upon us.” They imagined a new kind of community, and they reached for it.
That idealism has always been at the core of our national character. From building a new society in a wilderness to ending slavery, from the Industrial Revolution to land grant colleges, from social security to the civil rights revolution to, more recently, national health care reform, Americans have envisioned bold improvements and created new realities. Ours may be the only nation in human history not organized around a common language or religion or culture so much as a common set of civic ideals. And we have defined those ideals over time and through struggle as equality, opportunity, and fair play. For centuries, our perennial challenge has been the gap between our reality and our ideals. Our great strength is that we repeatedly confront that challenge. We keep asking ourselves how our actions measure up. When we are true to our ideals, we are at our best and are justifiably proud. And we are an inspiration to the world.
Idealism is magnetic for me. It explains so many of not only our national triumphs, but my personal ones as well. As a father, husband, and friend, I have tried to demonstrate that idealism can be a lodestar to guide your life. As a lawyer, civil rights advocate, and political leader, I have tried to inspire hope. I value the leaders who have come to see our highest calling as giving someone else a reason to believe.
Even when so many of our national achievements have been the product of this faith in the unseen, we discredit visionaries. For every Lincoln, FDR, or Kennedy, dozens of other political and public leaders were ready to replace a beacon of hope with the flag of surrender. Unfortunately, cynicism is not limited to politicians or the world-weary. Nowadays, even young people wallow in low expectations. The media and popular culture, reflecting their own limited vision, peddle cynicism like a drug, dulling the senses against hope and celebrating scornful indifference. But the truth is that cynicism is despair in toxic measure. It passes for sophistication. It is mistaken for being “cool.” It attempts to be a surrogate for inner strength but fails every time. It is simply a way of giving up on life, the world, and oneself. Good and able people try to make a difference, confront setbacks,