Look again at that date. I’m currently working on a project to preserve the legacy of my parents, Dr W.E. Lockhart Jr, MD and Lora Bell Kunze Lockhart, who provided health care and civic improvements in the Big Bend area of Texas for over 50 years from 1936 to 1998. I’m currently reading and transcribing letters sent to and fro when he served in the 30th Evacuation Hospital in New Guinea and the Philippines in World War II. In the midst of reading, I suddenly realized their concerns were exactly as ours are 80 YEARS later — almost to the day! And the situation they faced then was EXACTLY as we are facing today.
In their day, the authoritarian and fascist dictators had invaded European democracies and sovereign nations in the Pacific, murdered civilians and enacted despotic repression. There were authoritarian movements afoot within the United States as well. However, our Nation took on those despots in World War II and won! In our day, authoritarian regimes have invaded and repressed the European democracy of Ukraine, threaten sovereign nations in the Pacific and have assumed power in weakened nations in Africa and South America. And within the United States, authoritarian “regimes” have taken power in at least two states, Florida and Texas. There is an authoritarian faction at work in one of our major political parties, but so far the Nation as a whole is committed to stopping today’s “barbarians at the gate.” So far!
What these authoritarian regimes had then and have now in common is a refusal to accept the natural EQUALITY of all human beings. Lacking acceptance of equality, they have no EMPATHY for others and enact cruel and repressive laws against the wishes of their own people. Because they don’t see others as their equal, they deny a RIGHT to PRIVACY in human behavior. They exhibit HATRED toward immigrants and other less-powerful people. They repudiate the EQUAL PROTECTION in the RULE OF LAW and they deny or suppress DEMOCRACY, especially the RIGHT TO VOTE whereby the people can guide their government to meet their needs.
In a “V-mail” (the wartime format for letters) dated October 16, 1943, Lora Bell Lockhart wrote to her husband: “I am reading a book … ‘Prelude to Victory’ by a reporter named James B. Reston. I like lots he says and so far the main thesis seems to be that we have underestimated the price of freedom, and this quotation of Goethe in the front is apt I think. ‘That which thy fathers have bequeathed to thee, earn it anew if thou wouldst possess it.’ This habit of taking the easiest way out of everything surely left our country in an embarrassing position these last few years. The thing starts right at home though when we find out that only 13 people [in Alpine, Texas] voted in the last election for school board members. And what could be more important here to us? I believe the position of education in this country is one most pitiful and one of the most important for people like you and me to do something about. So far I think it has been only the teachers who have been concerned over education bills which come before legislatures.”
The Evacuation Hospital Dr Lockhart served with moved from site to site in New Guinea and the Philippines behind the battle lines. Their patients included wounded American and allied soldiers and Japanese prisoners of war. Beyond healing war wounds, they provided care for minor things like foot infections, for tropical diseases and emergency appendectomies. Throughout his experience he wrote home reflecting on his thoughts about human existence, what he was experiencing in war and his duty to care for all his patients.
In a V-mail on January 20, 1944, he took on those in Christianity who focus on minor things like whether Mary was a virgin or not and “miracles” of Christ, while missing the essential premise of the religion. He said, “The real central principle in Christianity lies in the biological fact that members of a species are naturally the greatest enemy of the individuals within that species, because of identical desires and needs. If by sympathy and understanding this conflict could be neutralized in man, almost unlimited progress would follow. Just as one time Nature designed a cerebral cortex for man: so now is emerging a new plan.”
On February 13, 1944, Dr Lockhart wrote, “I saw a POW while ago. Poor fellow, nearly starved. He is lucky. He will be well cared for and restored to health. I can’t help feeling sorry for many of these …. individuals – more or less peons, forced into the war by propaganda, pride, religion – and force.” Until he returned from World War II in January of 1946, he gave equal consideration and care to those he saw as “the least among us,” and after arriving home the Lockharts dedicated their lives to equal health care for all and civic improvements such as hospitals, safe water supplies and infrastructure in the Big Bend region.
For both Dr and Mrs. Lockhart the essence of Christianity was expressed in Matthew 25:40, “Inasmuch as ye have done it unto the least of these my brethren, ye have done it unto me.” This is a fundamental acceptance of the EQUALITY, the equal worth, of all individual humans. We often hear, “Do unto others as you would have them do unto you” or “Love thy neighbor as thyself.” This principle is not just found in Christianity, it is a common theme in other religious faiths and is central to the ethics of those who hold no specific religious faith.
Furthermore, this principle of EQUALITY is firmly established in the U.S. Declaration of Independence, the Constitution and its Amendments as ratified by The People. Standing on the Gettysburg battlefield in 1984, President Lincoln said, “Four score and seven years ago our fathers brought forth on this continent, a new nation, conceived in Liberty, and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal.”
In the Christmas season, we recalled the words of Henry Wadsworth Longfellow:
I heard the bells on Christmas Day their old, familiar carols play,
And wild and sweet the words repeat of Peace on Earth, Good Will to Men!
….
And in despair I bowed my head; “There is no peace on earth,” I said;
“For hate is strong, and mocks the song of peace on earth, good will to men!”
Then pealed the bells more loud and deep: “God is not dead, nor doth He sleep:
The Wrong shall fail, The Right prevail, With peace on earth, good will to men.”
Now, comes the election season of 2024, arguably the most important elections of our lifetime. For two intertwined reasons today’s advancement of authoritarian rule is more dangerous than in the 1930s-40s. Our planet is rapidly warming due to the use of fossil fuels and fossil fuel profits are funding authoritarian movements in an effort to prevent us from transitioning away from their use.
We can’t wait until directly attacked militarily as they did in WWII. “We, the People” are already under attack here at home, especially in Texas and by our own government. If we would have “the Wrong fail” and “the Right prevail” we have to use the one tool left to us, our DEMOCRACY, and vote like our lives depend on it. Because they do!
However, here is a key that may help in choosing our government leaders: Look for those who, instead of spouting rhetoric of “liberty” and “freedom” while attacking immigrants and other powerless people, believe in EQUALITY and who have accomplished or propose public policies that reinforce that natural fact. Look for and vote for those people who are, as President Lincoln said, “…dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal.”
Democracy is a “use it or lose it” proposition. Remember Goethe’s wise words: “That which thy fathers have bequeathed to thee, earn it anew if thou wouldst possess it.”
MB Lockhart's Blog 