NEW OCCASIONS TEACH NEW DUTIES

The Rev. Dana Prom Smith, S.T.D., Ph.D.

"Time, like an ever-rolling stream," the line from Isaac Watts’ hymn on Psalm 90, speaks of destiny’s inevitability. Our freedom is the way we encounter the ever-rolling stream that time and circumstance has thrust upon us. Some kick, scream, and deny. Others respond. With the rise of the modern world in the waning years of the 19th century, a strong reactionary riptide in America has tried to subvert history’s inevitable flow. Ever the custodian of reaction, the Republican Party, kicking and screaming all the way, continues to deny the threat global warming.

James Russell Lowell in his poem, "The Present Crisis," in 1845 foresaw the coming modern world and wrote, "New occasions teach new duties: Time makes ancient good uncouth." The Democratic Party has been learning "new duties" to meet "new occasions." Time left the Republican Party uncouth.

With the rise of industrialism the Republicans chose corporate profits. The Democratic Party, the party of values, chose workers’ rights and wages.

While "new occasions" require "new duties," the Democratic Party’s values remained the same, such as the liberation of African-Americans, women, and gays and lesbians, the protection of family values and children, and the care of the retired with Social Security. The Republican Party, ever loyal to its "uncouth" traditions, has ignored, repressed, denied, undermined, and disenfranchised.

James Russell Lowell began his poem,
Once to every man and nation,
comes the moment to decide,
In the strife of truth with falsehood,
for the good or evil side.

Our moments of decision are the Iraqi war, the exploitation of everyone except corporations and the wealthy, unjust taxation, the crushing of the middle class, the abuse of the poor, the trashing of the environment, the discounting of medical science, the subversion of Social Security, and the repudiation of the rights of all citizens. As a party of values, the Democratic Party has chosen the "inalienable rights" of the Declaration of Independence.

Copyright (c) Dana Prom Smith 2005