A master of the art of pursuing the possible: that’s how many folks have described Senator Ted Kennedy since his recent death. Perhaps his recognition of his own character flaws made him willing to delay the perfect in order to craft passable legislation that advanced civil rights, education, health care, and social services. He understood that patient cooperation often would serve the public good better than grandstanding with purist positions.
In my work, I have found no tidy boundary between the virtues of pursuing the possible and realizing the ideal. Sometimes, in order to achieve even incremental change, I have had to lead by articulating a pure vision. Other times, the cause was best advanced by avoiding a hard and fast delineation of the most desirable outcome. And, sometimes, I have had to change course between the two approaches. Always, one must keep one’s inner eyes on the goal – no matter how far-off its realization may seem.
Social progress is hardly a smooth process. It’s one step backward, two steps forward, two steps backward, three steps forward. What looks like failure may have within it the seeds of victory. Likewise, some victories are set-ups for later failure. Taking Ted Kennedy’s long view, we can pay attention to these subtleties in order to cultivate patience, prudence, and perseverance.
Tonight, at 7:30 pm, Roberta and I will be part of a demonstration at Hollywood and Highland in LA, supporting comprehensive health care reform. I want a universal, single-payer, public health insurance system. I think that as long as for-profit companies are in the game, there will be too little of every premium dollar going to actual health care. If everybody is forced to buy private insurance, that’s a cure for corporations, not people. We need to speak out and speak up for the ideal system we want – now more than ever.
Citizens pressing for the “perfect” solution will make it much more likely that our politicians can agree to the best possible solution. If we take to the streets and demand a full-scale universal public insurance system, it’s more likely that, at the very least, a public insurance option will be part of the reform package. The citizen campaign for single-payer, universal health care is an example of idealism in the service of realism. If we get single-payer, we should be ecstatic. If we get just a public insurance option this time, we ought to be happy, and campaign for more incremental improvements into the future.
“Now hope that is seen is not hope. For who hopes for what he sees? But if we hope for what we do not see, we wait for it with patience.” (Romans 8: 24-25) And work for it, too, we might add to St. Paul’s words… adding persistence to patience, idealism to realism, for the sake of the common good.
