History, truth and the moral arc of the universe

Dear readers, this is my last post on kelliebooks.com. Thank you for reading over the last few years. I'll let you know what happens next.

History Matters by David McCullough

2025, Music Street LLC

You've probably heard of David McCullough (1933-2022) and his numerous books on history (John Adams, 1776, and The American Spirit, to name three.) My brother is a fan, which is why this book caught my eye. McCullough thought history was not only fascinating in its exploration of "two of the greatest of all mysteries -- time and human nature," but more importantly, necessary to our lives.

History Matters, this posthumous collection of McCullough essays, is needed now more than ever, following the current USA administration's steps to erase parts of our history, like a recent presidential edict requiring the removal of any history "disparaging to Americans." (Read more here.)

We need to do all we can to stand up for the truest history, not the most flattering history. Sometimes the truth is flattering, but when it's not, when it's difficult and painful, it's still the truth. We don't need to be afraid of it. The following three books, Caste, Freedom is a Constant Struggle, and The Message all explore some painful truths. Should we therefore ignore or censor them?

Caste: The Origins of our Discontents

by Isabel Wilkerson

2020, Random House

This book discusses links between the caste system in India and a similar but hidden system in the United States. This system has allowed racism to exist and endure, with still-present consequences.

Before reading this book I watched the film based on it, Origin. A painful but true scene stays with me:

It's 1951. A little league team goes to celebrate their winning season by picnicking at a municipal pool. The only black boy on the team isn't allowed in the pool with the rest of the team; the guard says if he so much as touches the water the whole pool would have to be drained. The team members were unhappy, but they accepted it. The boy had to eat on the other side of the pool fence and watch everyone else eating inside and having fun swimming. At the end, the coach convinced the guard to let the little boy go in the pool, but that was even more heartbreaking. He had to stay on a raft and remain perfectly still so as to avoid touching the water at all. In the film and book, Wilkerson interviews the white friend of the little black boy, now an older man, who still feels bad about what happened that day. He said he knew it was wrong but didn't know what to do. Wilkerson points out that both little boys were caught in the caste system. Read more here.

Some might say Caste "disparages" American history and society, but the author loves her country and people. She promotes healing through understanding the truth.

The Message by Ta-Nehisi Coates

2024, One World

Coates talks about three different places in this book, but what stays with me is his visit to Palestine. I found reading about it so painful I had to take a break in the middle for several weeks, due to a searing question he asks himself

after seeing how the Palestinians are being treated by the State of Israel, a country of refuge to a people who were set apart, oppressed, killed and nearly exterminated in the Holocaust not even a century ago. Now Israel sets apart, oppresses and kills Palestinians, and it started not long after the Holocaust.

Martin Luther King Jr. said "The arc of the moral universe is long, but it bends toward justice.”  These words have given me such hope that yes, change takes time, but it is possible.

But then I read Coates' searing question: Is the arc of the moral universe, in the end, really a circle? and my heart was horrified and almost stopped for a moment.

"No," my heart screamed, "I don't want this to be true." If the arc is a circle, doesn't it mean we just go round and round and we can't learn or change? I don't want it to be true that Israel, which represents the Jewish people, who were oppressed, is now the oppressor. I hate what it means if we never learn, never change, if hatred, fear, fighting, war just go on and on forever. I hate that Israel, a place that was said to represent some sort of hope and justice after the horrific reality of the Holocaust, is doing this. But they are. Is "better them than us" the eternal human refrain?

This question has been bothering me since the reaction to October 7 was to bomb bomb bomb, and now, in spite of the ceasefire, the killing goes on.

A lost earring:

After reading this question that horrified me, I went for a walk, and decided to wear some arc-shaped earrings I rarely wear (ironically, I prefer circles...), hoping to convince myself that maybe even though the arc of the universe is very very long, it does exist and it bends toward justice. Even if we can't see it. I reflected as I walked, still feeling weak and shattered by the words I'd read. When I got home, I reached for the earrings hanging from my ears as if to reassure myself.

The arc earring

But I was met with a new feeling of dread when I realized one of the earrings had fallen off. I frantically retraced my steps over the various paved, dirt, and stone roads I'd traversed, as if finding the lost earring would have meaning or restore some sort of balance or justice in our world. The earring was small and delicate. I didn't find it. After that, it took me many weeks or even months before I could finish the book.

But maybe what matters is that I looked for the earring. And even if I didn't find it, it's still there, somewhere.

Click here (left arrow) if you want to read a few more thoughts.

Don't fear the truth. It's a beginning for hope and forgiveness.

Coates didn't want to write this book. He was going to write something else. But he felt he had a duty as a writer and journalist to see and report what he saw.

He starts his book with this George Orwell quote:

In a peaceful age I might have written ornate or merely descriptive books, and might have remained almost unaware of my political loyalties. As it is I have been forced into becoming a sort of pamphleteer. -George Orwell, Why I Write

Should we censor voices who say things we don't want to hear? Those who support the Free Palestine movement who are being labeled as antisemitic. Again, telling truths about history or the present is being challenged. Even the Jews who are fighting for an end to the occupation and apartheid in Israel are often labeled "self-hating Jews", as was the intellectual Noam Chomsky who spent his life studying and speaking about this issue. It's hard. I'm even having a hard time writing about it here, and fear using the word genocide for what is happening in Palestine, with the support of my country and my taxes. But that's what I think it is.

It's been a huge heartbreak to have to admit that the State of Israel, the home of a people who have been so mistreated, has been practicing this form of discrimination for a long time and continue to kill even during the "ceasefire", because they want the land.

Why was I so naive as to think being a victim meant you would not be a victimizer?

We need to not be afraid to look directly at what is happening and call it out for what it is. This is not anti-semitic. It doesn't mean we don't find anti-semitism unacceptable and terrifying, that we don't recognize that it remains a constant threat, or that we don't sympathize with Jews who want to have their own homeland. But we don't need to accept treating others as less than human.

Freedom is a Constant Struggle:

Ferguson, Palestine, and the Foundations of a Movement

by Angela Davis

2016

In these essays, Davis explains how the Black struggle in the USA and the Palestinian struggle are linked, and how recognizing this can advance the cause against structural racism and apartheid.

And as the title suggests, she says that freedom can never be taken for granted. A just society can't be taken for granted. We have to fight for it.

Defy the Stars: The Life and Tragic Death of Tom Hurndall

by Jocelyn Hurndall

2007, Bloomsbury

I met the author of this book at my friend Sue's house. Her son, Thomas Hurndall, went to Palestine as a volunteer in 2003, but was killed by an Israeli army sniper when he carried a child to safety. The child had been playing in the street with some other children.

His mom, Jocelyn, describes the reaction of denial she encountered from the Israeli army, and her family's experience trying to get answers, and ultimately a trial and conviction for the soldier, a conviction she knows only happened because they had the privilege of being backed by the British embassy. Once the army and the state saw the Hurndall family would not back down, they produced the soldier for trial, and all the blame was put on him, in spite of the fact his actions reflected what was commonplace and accepted all the way up the chain of command.

Jocelyn showed immense courage and bravery at such a tragic time. She did what had to be done, in order to honor the memory of her son. May he rest in peace.

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“Hope is a discipline. Hope is our most valuable weapon.” (M Khalil)

PEACE