Matthew 5:15

One of our lights went out last week. Dr. Bill Wahl died early Friday morning. He and Kim were active for many years in Ground Zero, the effort to close the nuclear submarine base across the sound in Bangor. We have grown comfortable that Mutually Assured Destruction will keep us safe. Yet on at least two instances it has been so only by the good sense of mid-level military commanders to ignore the signals from their systems of attacks that turned out to be non-existent. Now that the world seems full of national leaders whose sense seems questionable, people are getting uncomfortable again.

Bill once lamented that Ground Zero seems to have been for nought. I don’t think so. The early years of most social movements are mostly met with indifference. William Lloyd Garrison published The Liberator for 31 years before slavery was abolished. His movement spawned the suffragettes who wouldn’t win the vote for another 52 years after that. Neither of these landmarks marked the end of the struggle to fulfill the American proposition that all are created equal. Social justice is a slow process. (Judging from the passage from Isaiah, one might argue that the Jews have been at it for 3000 years.) It requires immense faith.

Our Social Justice Commission is looking for new members. Contact Trisha Tinsley at citizencoach@gmail.com.