The Bright Side
Dear St. John’s,
The news of Jesse Jackson’s death earlier this week felt like the closing of a long and complicated chapter in the American story. For decades, his voice rang out in pulpits, on picket lines, and in the halls of power. He stood in the shadow of giants and yet became one himself—a bridge between the Civil Rights Movement and the generations that followed. With his passing, we are reminded how quickly even the loudest voices fall silent, how even the most public lives return to dust.
Ash Wednesday meets us with that same stark reminder: “Remember that you are dust, and to dust you shall return.” The same cross is traced on every forehead. The same words are spoken over the activist and the laborer, the powerful and the forgotten. In death, there is a great leveling.
(Breaking the fourth wall)
It would be nice if I actually I wrote the first two paragraphs, but I didn’t. That my friends would be courtesy of ChatGPT. And I must admit, “It’s really, really good!” Giving it a simple prompt like, “Write a one-page reflection on the death of Jesse Jackson and tie it into Ash Wednesday, from the perspective of an Episcopal priest” produced the two excellent paragraphs above, in a matter of seconds.
This is the world that Rev. Jesse Jackson has left. One in which reality has become more complicated than ever. Artificial Intelligence (AI) threatens millions of jobs and our socioeconomic structures way more than immigrants do, yet either by ignorance or deception (or both) the blame for society’s ills are pointed towards the “other.” These racist tactics were used during Jackson’s younger days and are sadly still being used today.
I do not believe that our old ways of being will get us through the 21st century. At least, not the negative aspects of ourselves (elitism, racism, authoritarianism, etc.). We have more than enough things to tackle with everything from, living in a world with AI to the climate crisis. Yet, it is the trappings of greed and power that hinder our growth as humans. Will that ever change?
I’m not so sure. Perhaps it is appropriate that I end my reflection the same way I started it, with the words from another. However, instead of AI let us look to the words of Jesse Jackson who in his 1984 DNC address said:
We leave this place looking for the sunny side because there's a brighter side somewhere...We will vault up the rough side of the mountain. We can win. I just want young America to do me one favor, just one favor. Exercise the right to dream. You must face reality -- that which is. But then dream of a reality that ought to be -- that must be. Live beyond the pain of reality with the dream of a bright tomorrow. Use hope and imagination as weapons of survival and progress. Use love to motivate you and obligate you to serve the human family.
Amen!
