Michigan state Senator Mallory McMorrow - April 19, 2022

 Thank you, Mr. President. 

I didn’t expect to wake up yesterday to the news that the senator from the 22nd district [state Senator Lana Theis] had overnight accused me by name of grooming and sexualizing children in an email fundraising for herself. So I sat on it for a while wondering why me.

Then I realized [it’s] because I am the biggest threat to your [Theis’s] hollow hateful scheme, because you can’t claim that you are targeting marginalized kids in the name of quote parental rights if another parent is standing up to say no. 

So then what?

Then you dehumanize and marginalize me. You say that I’m one of them. You say, “She’s a groomer. She supports pedophilia. She wants children to believe that they were responsible for slavery. And to feel bad about themselves because they’re white.” 

Well, here’s a little bit of background about who I really am. 

Growing up, my family was very active in our church. I sang in the choir. My mom taught CCD. One day our priest called a meeting with my mom and told her that she was not living up to the church’s expectations and that she was disappointing. 

My mom asked why. Among other reasons, she was told it was because she was divorced. And because the priest didn’t see her at Mass every Sunday. So where was my mom on Sundays? 

She was at the soup kitchen with me. 

My mom taught me at a very young age that Christianity and faith was about being part of a community, about recognizing our privilege and blessings and doing what we can to be of service to others, especially people who are marginalized, targeted and who had less often unfairly.

I learned this service was far more important than performative nonsense like being seen in the same pew every Sunday, or writing “Christian” in your Twitter bio, and using that as a shield to target and marginalize already marginalized people. 

I also stand on the shoulders of people like Father Ted Hesburgh, the longtime president of the University of Notre Dame, who was active in the civil rights movement, who recognized his power and privilege as a white man, a faith leader and the head of an influential and well-respected institution, and who saw black people in this country being targeted and discriminated against and beaten and [Hesburgh] reached out to lock arms with Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. when he was alive when he was unpopular. And marching alongside them to say, “We’ve got you,” to offer protection and service and allyship to try to right the wrongs and fix injustice in the world. 

So who am I? 

I am a straight, white, Christian, married, suburban mom, who knows that the very notion that learning about slavery or redlining or systemic racism somehow means that children are being taught to feel bad or hate themselves because they are white is absolute nonsense.

No child alive today is responsible for slavery. 

No one in this room is responsible for slavery. 

But each and every single one of us bears responsibility for writing the next chapter of history. Each and every single one of us decides what happens next and how we respond to history and the world around us. 

We are not responsible for the past. 

We also cannot change the past. 

We can’t pretend that it didn’t happen or deny people their very right to exist. 

I am a straight, white, Christian, married, suburban mom. I want my daughters to know that she is loved, supported and seen for whoever she comes. I want her to be curious, empathetic, and kind. 

People who are different are not the reason that our roads are in bad shape after decades of disinvestment or that health care costs are too high or the teachers are leaving the profession. 

I want every child in this state to feel seen, heard and supported, not marginalized and targeted because they are not straight, white and Christian. 

We cannot let hateful people tell you otherwise to scapegoat and deflect from the fact that they are not doing anything to fix the real issues that impact people’s lives. 

And I know that hate will only win if people like me stand by and let it happen. 

So I want to be very clear right now. Call me whatever you want. 

I hope you brought in a few dollars. I hope it made you sleep good last night. 

I know who I am. I know what faith and service means and what it calls for in this moment. 

We will not let hate win.

* * * * *

You can watch Senator McMorrow’s speech here. 

Republican Hate

Living in Northern Michigan a few years back, I had some auto work done and needed a courtesy ride from the shop. A retired gentleman from downstate (Detroit) drove me home; he told me how much he enjoyed living up north because downstate, he no longer felt at home. There were just too many foreigners and too many Blacks.

I'll not forget the conversation ... I listened, he lamented.

I suspect some of the hatred spewing out of the far right at the McPalin rallies reflects the "homelessness" experienced by many Americans who were born and reared in one age and now find themselves strangers in a strange land.

Check out the following video - look and listen - are they not "homeless" in America? They've been uprooted and made to grow in a radically new environment, and they're scared, even as they can't, or won't, comprehend the world as it is.

"Pinko Communist," an elderly man shouted. Talk about a time-warp, a blast from the past, but he was using an epithet he had used in the McCarthy era - something sure and solid, something for certain. When all else fails, start name-calling. It feels good for the powerless and the lost.

They're sad for the loss of orientation, and the loss of feeling important and valuable. They're frustrated because what they once knew doesn't fit very well any more. Their children have likely moved on; retirement pensions are shrinking. They no longer feel at home, and now McPalin gives them an opportunity to reach down into all of that fear, all of that hatred (for we hate what we fear, if the fear continues long enough), and give vent to it.

And something darker ... life is always about who's on top and who isn't. Only by grace does one overcome such instincts, but for millions of white folk, the position of privilege was never questioned, even if you were a redneck sharecropper, down on your luck, you at least black folks to despise.

Barbara Kingsolver, in her delightful book of essays, High Tide in Tucson, observes in an essay on bad science in service of racial superiority: the privileged have not yet tired of hearing how righteously they came by their place at the table (essay entitled, "Semper Fi").

There have always been racists and hate-filled people - it's a DNA thing, but many of the McPalin folks live decent lives. Quiet lives, likely never thinking very much about ultimate values - they work too hard, their churches are not likely to help them grow emotionally or intellectually - good and decent folk who watch a lot of TV.

They're afraid.

P.S. If you want to see a sad example of how the church fails these folks (since most of them would be either conservative evangelical/Baptist types or Roman Catholics, check out this video of an "evangelical" pastor giving the invocation at a McCain rally - an example of a terribly distorted understanding of Scripture and a pandering to the powers-that-be.