Necessary Trouble

 "Progressivism seeks to replace the basic premises of the Declaration of Independence, and hence our form of government." And so began Clarence Thomas' speech to students at the University of Texas this past week. He continued, "In my view, we must find in ourselves that same level of courage that the signers of the Declaration have so that we can do for our future what they did for theirs."

Historical note: forty-one of the fifty-six signers of that Declaration owned slaves. This ratio improved somewhat by the signing of the Constitution, with just under half of the fifty-five delegates keeping other human beings for their servitude. There were no black signers of either document. 

In 1967, Lyndon Johnson appointed the Thurgood Marshall  first black man to the Supreme Court, paving the way for (checks notes) Clarence Thomas. What I am about to suggest is not a truly revolutionary statement, but I believe that Clarence was a DEI hire. 

Not that there is anything wrong with that. I believe that our country has spent most of its history trying to live up to its ideals. The fact that our nation was thirteen years shy of its one hundredth birthday before the slaves that were owned by those who could afford them were freed. It would be another hundred years before a civil rights lawyer named (checks notes) Thurgood Marshall argued a case in front of the Supreme Court called Brown vs The Board of Education that the flawed notion of "separate but equal" was unconstitutional, paving the way for integration of our public schools. 

Lots of paving going on in these here United States. 

That paving has been done thanks to progressive voices for the past two hundred fifty years. "We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness." You know who wrote that? A slave owner.  Some would argue, myself included, that this promise is still unfulfilled, especially for women, who are still waiting for some sort of constitutional mention of their rights being equal. 

So Clarence Thomas believes that progressivism is a threat to America? I suppose he might want to sit down for a heart-to-heart with Ketanji Brown Jackson, the first African-American woman to be appointed to the Supreme Court. I would expect this would be a lively debate. 

Keep fighting those good fight, and remember the words of John Lewis: "Get in good trouble, necessary trouble, and help redeem the soul of America."