I grew up my first eighteen years in a small town in Indiana, and cherish my experience there – so much so that in my early fifties I spent a year at my own expense traveling all around the State, talking to people and producing a one-hour film on Indiana that was subsequently written up glowingly in 26 newspapers in different cities and towns across the State, and in response to which I received many, many letters of thanks and praise from viewers in Indiana as well as from Hoosiers who were now located in different parts of the country.
This feeling of warmth and respect on my part has always extended out to other States in this Heartland called the Midwest. I had, and still have, a deep feeling for the people who live in the small towns and on farms, away from the limelight of the big cities, attached to a simpler way of life.
But now I wonder. The memory of my boyhood is being tested and corrupted as I listen to current events, and to peoples’ voices, filled with fear and anger, and a retreat into a smaller, less generous, divisive world of the heart.
Do we really want to sink into a world of chaos, division, and hatred for one another, a reversion to dark models of the past, where power is used to silence voices, and our collective, common identity is broken in pieces?
We are facing a menace to the cherished Dream of America by a President who would pit us against each other; who embraces the most virolent racist elements in our society; who demeans everyone who threatens or challenges his own distorted, narcisistic image of himself; who aligns himself with dictators and demagogues; who trashes our country’s historic allies; who denies and refuses to take responsibility for his totally inept handling of a pandemic which has already infected six million of our citizens and caused almost two hundred thousand deaths; who is battling in court to eliminate the health care of tens of millions; who trashes women; who is trying to use the levers of government at all levels to prevent people from voting…and the list goes on.
Senate Republicans are shamelessly with him. His constant support is their unforgivable silence.
Many Evangelicals are shamelessly with him, upholders of a moral monster, making a mockery of their so-called religion, violating the eternal, fundamental principles of their religion’s founder.
Where are you at, Indiana? Where are you at, Midwest and Heartland?
Are you going to stand up for decency and the great Dream of democracy that so many in our history have valiantly struggled and laid down their lives for? Are you going to stand up for all of us, together, for a better future, united in our empathy and concern for the most unfortunate of us; united in our effort to build out a future for this country, no matter what it takes, focused on the happiness of everyone, a future which we can without a doubt create even beyond our wildest dreams if only we come together as one people?
I ask you, as a native-born in your midst. I call out to each and every one of you for a response that lends dignity to your name – Heartland.
This is Judgment Day. Your Judgment.
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James Hilgendorf is a filmmaker, speaker, poet, and the author of ten non-fiction books.
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