What Just Happened Here?

I want to start by acknowledging that this is not a sermon decrying the results of the election. We all know what the results are, and there's no point preaching about that. People vote their conscience, and it's not my business to preach about that. This is a sermon examining some of the process of the election, and the implications of that process.

Determining that George W. Bush won and that Al Gore lost took us all through everything from a split vote in the country to an uncountable vote in Florida to an uncounted vote in Florida to a split vote in the Florida and Federal Supreme Courts through a finally counted vote in Florida via the Miami Herald which awarded the majority of countable votes to Bush. Even discounting the side stories like the remarkable upsurge of Floridian Jewish support for anti-Semite Pat Buchanan , it is a complicated and frustrating story. It was a complicated and frustrating experience. It was not spiritual. And in the end, it left many people with serious questions.

Some are about the status of the balance so carefully conceived by our country's founders between the executive, legislative and judicial branches of government. Some are about just what happened in Florida to the African-Americans who found road blocks and state police in their path to the polls, or to convicts who had served their time, regained their right to vote, and suddenly found a law passed that, unbeknownst to them, denied them that right and declined to inform them until they actually showed up at the polls and were turned away.

Even now, just what happened in Florida, and just what happened in Washington, is unclear. Some scholars and pundits advocate waiting for history to bring in its inevitable judgement, which may, as it often does, contravene current understandings of events. Others speak of these aspects of our presidential election as a valuable educational opportunity, a civics lesson, an opportunity to sit back and watch the wheels of government turn. I am preaching this sermon because while the former view seems undoubtedly true - history will offer us insights and perspectives that will later help us understand our times- the latter view is deeply disturbing. That we should understand these events as a lesson in civics, and work only to understand them, is not only inadequate, but even contrary to the spirit of our country and of democracy itself. As part of explaining this, I want to go back to one of the earliest stories and speeches on democracy in the West - in ancient Greece, the cradle of western civilization, the cradle of democracy.

Throughout much of classical Greece's 5th century, there was a long, bloody conflict between Greece's two rival city-states, Athens, which was a democracy, and a cultural and naval power, and Sparta, which was ruled by kings and fielded a famous, powerful army. Their conflict, which lasted many years, was called the Peloponnesian War. Early in that war, there was a battle in which many Athenians were killed. Afterwards, in Athens, the Athenian leader Pericles gave a funeral oration for the fallen soldiers. Funerals after such battles were public rituals, both religious and political, and Pericles used the occasion to make what became a very famous speech about democracy.

"Most of my predecessors in this place have commended him who made this speech part of the law, telling us that it is well that it should be delivered at the burial of those who fall in battle. For myself, I should have thought that the worth which had displayed itself in deeds would be sufficiently rewarded by honours also shown by deeds; such as you now see in this funeral prepared at the people's cost. And I could have wished that the reputations of many brave men were not to be imperilled in the mouth of a single individual, to stand or fall according as he spoke well or ill. For it is hard to speak properly upon a subject where it is even difficult to convince your hearers that you are speaking the truth. On the one hand, the friend who is familiar with every fact of the story may think that some point has not been set forth with that fullness which he wishes and knows it to deserve; on the other, he who is a stranger to the matter may be led by envy to suspect exaggeration if he hears anything above his own nature. For men can endure to hear others praised only so long as they can severally persuade themselves of their own ability to equal the actions recounted: when this point is passed, envy comes in and with it incredulity. However, since our ancestors have stamped this custom with their approval, it becomes my duty to obey the law and to try to satisfy your several wishes and opinions as best I may."

Pericles then spoke of all their ancestors - of how much those ancestors had accomplished in order to hand down the city-state to those who now had it as their responsibility. And then he talked of just what the Athenians had that was so unique in the world. What set them apart was not their geography, not their products, not their dress, not even their art, what he and they believed was so unique and unprecedented was their government, the idea of Athens as a democracy where citizens all had equal opportunities to live and lead, under the law. Pericles said:

"Our constitution does not copy the laws of neighbouring states; we are rather a pattern to others than imitators ourselves. Its administration favours the many instead of the few; this is why it is called a democracy. If we look to the laws, they afford equal justice to all in their private differences; if no social standing, advancement in public life falls to reputation for capacity, class considerations not being allowed to interfere with merit; nor again does poverty bar the way, if a man is able to serve the state, he is not hindered by the obscurity of his condition. The freedom which we enjoy in our government extends also to our ordinary life. There, far from exercising a jealous surveillance over each other, we do not feel called upon to be angry with our neighbour for doing what he likes, or even to indulge in those injurious looks which cannot fail to be offensive, although they inflict no positive penalty. But all this ease in our private relations does not make us lawless as citizens. Against this fear is our chief safeguard, teaching us to obey the magistrates and the laws, particularly such as regard the protection of the injured, whether they are actually on the statute book, or belong to that code which, although unwritten, yet cannot be broken without acknowledged disgrace."

From here, Pericles spoke about the opportunities for recreation and enjoyment that were manifold in Athens as a center of wealth and of trade . He lauded its military prowess, diverse capacities, history and valor. He celebrated the culture's tastefulness, openness, ambition, their commitment to discussion and understanding, a model of daring and deliberation, and concluded by speaking of their generosity, and the debts owed to the generous by those who benefit from largesse. His final words were a larger tribute to Athens' historic greatness:

"...the admiration of the present and succeeding ages will be ours, since we have not left our power without witness, but have shown it by mighty proofs; and far from needing a Homer for our panegyrist, or other of his craft whose verses might charm for the moment only for the impression which they gave to melt at the touch of fact, we have forced every sea and land to be the highway of our daring, and everywhere, whether for evil or for good, have left imperishable monuments behind us. Such is the Athens for which these men, in the assertion of their resolve not to lose her, nobly fought and died; and well may every one of their survivors be ready to suffer in her cause. Indeed if I have dwelt at some length upon the character of our country, it has been to show that our stake in the struggle is not the same as theirs who have no such blessings to lose, and also that the panegyric of the men over whom I am now speaking might be by definite proofs established. That panegyric is now in a great measure complete; for the Athens that I have celebrated is only what the heroism of these and their like have made her, men whose fame, unlike that of most Hellenes, will be found to be only commensurate with their desserts. And if a test of worth be wanted, it is to be found in their closing scene, and this not only in cases in which it set the final seal upon their merit, but also in those in which it gave the first intimation of their having any."

What Pericles was saying there was that in having spent so much of his time on Athens' greatness, he has already praised and honored the men who died fighting for her, because they are Athens. The city-state was a democracy, her greatness was everyone's greatness, her losses everyone's sorrow. The people of Athens were measured by their city, and their city was a measure of themselves.

There are many things to argue with in Pericles' oration from a modern stance; his understanding of war as inherently moral, honorable and worthwhile in every case; his standards for participation in the city which overlook the place of metics and slaves and the disenfranchized citizen women; his belief that good deeds done on behalf of the city outweigh personal failings. But his oration stood, and still stands, as the earliest, most important articulations of the importance and responsibility of a democracy.

Consideration of his words calls us to consider what we believe our democracy to be. And his words call us to consider that we have become complacent. We believe that almost 40 years after the civil rights movement and voter registration initiatives in the south, that African-Americans, and all Americans, have not only the right but also the freedom to vote and that we do not need to work still to safeguard those rights and freedoms. Polls show that most people thought it was clear that people elect the president, and that the power to do that is held and available to every law-abiding citizen in this country. We thought that while some people chose not to vote, that votes counted, that every vote was counted, and that when we saw election results our vote was surely one of the total number on television screens and newspaper pages following the election.

Now it is evident that we were wrong, and Pericles' words remind us that in the end, the blame for that is ours. As in ancient Athens, we are measured by our country, and our country is a measure of ourselves. In our country, not everyone possessing the right to vote is given the freedom to vote - and that reflects on each of us, on you and on me. In our country, it is not clear to the highest court in the land, and they mentioned this in their opinion, just whether citizens or rather elected representatives, have the power and the right to elect our president.

If we are unhappy with the running of this election, we can blame many, many people. We can blame the decisions of the officials who designed complicated, misleading ballots, or the Florida secretary of state who supported the recognition of the results when many votes were uncounted, or the Federal supreme court for doing the same thing, or the state police who went along with an action that threatened constitutional rights of African Americans in Florida, or the media which under-reported some of the most shocking aspects of the treatment of voters there, or the media which still hasn't covered what happens to votes in all the other states that weren't as tightly contested, or the people who didn't read their ballots carefully enough when voting or the justices who seem to have voted for a party rather than a position. But in the end, we must also blame ourselves.

We didn't understand how things worked, how they might work, how much was unclear, unregulated, uncounted, immeasurable and unfair. Any president we elect has the right to serve, and we have to recognize any president elected by the majority of the country. But the only thing that makes that so is our believe, as members of a democracy, that in fact that person was elected, that they do serve at the will of the people, that we have chosen, and our choice deserves a chance. For Unitarian Universalists, democracy is a religious principle, we affirm that we believe in the right of conscience and the use of the democratic process. This last election called into question exactly how the democratic process does and doesn't work our country. Now we know, whatever our party affiliation, however we voted, that our democracy still is not what it should be, not what we thought it was.

For us as Unitarian-Universalists, we are referred back to the first part of that principle: the right of conscience. What happens here in our country, in our election, reflects on us - it is our country, our election. Four years from now there will be another presidential election. The freedom of people who have the right to vote will matter again. Ballots that are clear and easy to use, roadways that are clear and unimpeded by police roadblocks, votes that are countable and counted - all these things we took for granted, are our responsibility. If everyone has them four years from now, it will be because we held people accountable, did not forget, worked and checked to make sure that the right to vote and to have your vote count was available as it should be. And if it is not, it will be our fault as much as any official's or agency's fault, because now we know better.

Democracy is gift and a charge, to all of us, to each of us, now, four years from now and every day. Not only our voices but all voices must be heard. As in Athens, "...the admiration of the present and succeeding ages will be ours, since we have not left our power without witness, but have shown it by mighty proofs; and far from needing a Homer for our panegyrist, or other of his craft whose verses might charm for the moment only for the impression which they gave to melt at the touch of fact, we have forced every sea and land to be the highway of our daring, and everywhere, whether for evil or for good, have left imperishable monuments behind us." May our imperishable monuments, of which democracy is one, in the end show us to have been a country moving always closer to the good - to justice and equality, the legal proofs of a people grounded in compassion and humility.

Amen.