Well. It is the day after the election. I am writing this post the day before the election as I will be volunteering to be an election judge in our little town and know I will not be getting home until late after a long day. It is an odd time. On one hand, as I write this, it is a typical Monday for a typical work week. We had a lovely weekend, similar to many routine weekends: did some work projects around the house, visited with our small group, connected with our out-of-town son, had family dinner with our in-town son, went to church, etc. Yet hanging over our heads like a shroud, is the thought that come Wednesday, things might be quite different in our country. I liken it to how things were during the pandemic. There was a time before any shut-downs. Time when we went about our business without any thought or worry.

Then, in a shortened amount of time and in some cases over night, we went to being quiet: no cars on the roads, no stores, restaurants or shops opened. To travel or go anywhere required planning: do I need to fill out paperwork about vaccinations or reasons to travel? Do I have my mask, hand sanitizer? I remember the first time I had to go to a grocery store. I checked in with some friends asking if they needed me to pick anything up for them. I was a little puzzled by the one friend’s response, “be prepared to wait.” I didn’t understand it until I parked and saw the long line snaking around the building and realized that would be our new mantra.

In some ways, as we are waiting for the results of Tuesday’s election, I feel that same surreal waiting. Will we look back on today and remember when? Will Tuesday be the demarcation point of before and after in our political world and in our nation?

In our local newspaper recently they shared the story of Master Sgt. Roddie Edmonds who saved more than 200 American Jewish soldiers from extermination. He was part of a division of approximately 1,275 men who were captured by the Nazis in a surprise German counter offensive during the Battle of the Bulge. The captured men were forced in a brutal winter march, jammed into boxcars without food or water and eventually ended up at a POW camp. On January 27, 1945, the commandant of the POW camp ordered that just the Jewish soldiers come out of the building. All the prisoners knew that would mean automatic death for those soldiers. Roddie Edmonds was the ranking US officer and was expected to comply. Instead he ordered all the POWs outside where they assembled in formation.

The commandant put a pistol to Edmonds’ head and demanded that he give up the Jews or he would be killed. Roddie Edmonds responded by saying, “We are all Jews here.” Edmonds then told the commandant that the war was not going well for the Germans and if he pulled the trigger or ordered the Jews to be shot and killed, then he, the commandant would be tried for war crimes.

Not only was Roddie courageous but also the other 1,274 men who were barracked together. Any one of them could have “ratted” on their fellow soldiers but no one did. According to Roddie’s son (Rev. Chris Edmonds, a Baptist pastor from Knoxville, TN), he says his dad’s courage stemmed from his faith. “He chose to stand with God and humanity against evil.”

I think of those courageous men as we approach Veteran’s Day next week and as we have finished a highly contentious political cycle. I think of those men and women who have chosen to stand for Truth, Grace and Mercy, for those who speak for the most vulnerable and marginalized and for those who stand with God- loving their neighbors as themselves.

I sometimes wonder if I would have said, “We are all Jews here.” Regardless of the moral issue, perhaps Master Sgt. Edmonds was just being practical. It doesn’t take long before one realizes that if one doesn’t stand for the downtrodden or the ostracized, eventually the powers that be will be looking for whomever is left.

I think of the poem inscribed on the Boston’s Holocaust Memorial by German pastor Martin Niemoller:

First they came for the socialists, and I did not speak out—

Because I was not a socialist.

Then they came for the trade unionists, and I did not speak out—

Because I was not a trade unionist.

Then they came for the Jews, and I did not speak out—

Because I was not a Jew.

Then they came for me—and there was no one left to speak for me.

There has been different versions of this poem attributed to Pastor Niemoller. He says himself that at different speaking engagements he used different groups to make his point. But the point is the same- when people with whom we don’t identify have difficulty- whether those people are harassed, marginalized, bullied, or in the Nazi extreme- carried away and exterminated- and we, because we are not in “that” group, do nothing we will eventually end up like those whom we think we have nothing in common. For if a group can demean and make another group feel less than human, eventually they will demean all groups who are not like them.

What about you on this day after the election? Are you sad? Shocked? Frightened? Happy? If your people did not get into office, what are you going to do? Keep your head down and not get involved? Become more involved? At this writing, it doesn’t matter which party is in office and it doesn’t matter for which party you voted. We are living in this beautiful country and we are all part of this wonderful experiment called democracy. We are all Americans.

I think this election hopefully has taught us a couple of things. We need to cherish and protect our democracy. We cannot become complacent about how we are governed. I know that I will be a little more interested in how things are governed locally as well as on the federal level. More than the government, I hope this election has taught us that being divided is not good. As Lincoln quoted from the Bible in his 1858 speech, “a house divided against its self cannot stand.” We have to hold on to the fact that what brings us together is much stronger than what tears us apart. Seeking Truth, Goodness, Grace, and Mercy are all strong ties. Much stronger than lies, deceptions, and name calling. I know that whatever the outcome, I want to be like Master Sgt. Edmonds- I stand with God and hopefully have the courage to stand against evil.

As we approach Veteran’s Day, not only should we thank those veterans we know but we should also honor them by standing for democracy and choosing to stand up for others who may not be able to stand by themselves. We honor the veterans by saying, “we are all…. (fill in the blank)”.