In the 1700s, when the world’s intelligentsia were jawboning the proposition that all men are created equal, it was the good people of Massachusetts that lit the fuse on the thing and got it on. The result was the American Experiment, a new paradigm and a shining beacon to so many in the years since.
The next great civil rights battle was the abolition of slavery. It is not widely known, but Massachusetts was at the vanguard of this fight as well. Our commonwealth’s supreme court declared in 1783 that black people and white people are both people, not property, and in doing so we became the first state to outlaw slavery. Massachusetts remained a center of the abolitionist movement through the awful Civil War which finally ended the infernal institution for all Americans.
More recently, Massachusetts instituted a framework that moves towards covering all residents with health insurance. While many (including me) agree that it is a deeply-flawed framework, it does go some distance in providing us with health care that is closer to that found in all other industrialized countries. Our success with this experiment (and perversely, the fact that it was championed by a Republican governor) gave our elected Democrats a little courage to implement the improvement nationwide.
Yesterday we witnessed another national paradigm change sparked, I believe, by Massachusetts’ trailblazing: the repeal of Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell. Six and a half years ago I heard the news while driving home, that our Supreme Judicial Court had ruled that gay marriage was legal. I figured it wouldn’t last long, that too many folks would flip out. Fortunately I was wrong. After a few months of wailing from a few, and regularly-scheduled hate rallies by the Mitt-Flopper, everyone realized that all was well and equality was a done deal.
In the past few years since the SJC ruling, many, many Americans have shifted position on gay rights – most now are in favor of gay Americans serving in the military, and half are in favor of gay marriage. I believe that Massachusetts’ acceptance of gay folks as being every bit the equal of heterosexual folks was key in moving the ball forward – America saw that our commonwealth is still doing fine, and realized that it’s OK to do the right thing.
So tonight I toast the good people of Massachusetts. I’m not sure if it’s the water, the schools, or the crummy weather, but for more than 200 years we have lit candles in the darkness and showed America the way towards progress.
Excelsior!
National Geographic article about slavery today uses the figure 27 million, that is 27,000,000!
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p>There is, in fact, a current worldwide abolitionist movement
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p>More about slavery today
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p>And it really is all economic because human life has become so cheap, given the disparity in income and power.
…child labor laws and public education. My nominee for the contributing factor is, believe it or not, our religious heritage. We were founded by a sect, the Puritans, who fundamentally believed, at least in theory, that all were equal in the sight of God. They saw fit to govern their own secular and religious affairs with little need for aristocratic nobility and none whatsoever for bishops. Though they were hardly perfect in modern eyes, looking askance at any woman who claimed authority, hanging “witches” from time to time, and being hostile to beliefs not their own, they set the framework whereby the path to equality was ultimately the only path that made any sense. They also founded Harvard College on the premise that a colony to be governed such as they planned needed an educated citizenry. Though I’m sure their attitude toward homosexuality was hardly enlightened (despite historic rumors that their king was gay, or at least bi-, but I digress), I don’t think it’s coincidence that a successor denomination, the United Church of Christ, was the first Christian denomination to fully embrace marriage equality, nor that the colony they founded became the first state to do so.
It was not simply not tolerating others beliefs but actively persecuting them. Even in the 1780s Sam Adams and others felt Catholics were disqualified for public office, and there was a long hard legacy of progressive and enlightened heirs to the Puritan heritage opposing the Catholic church as anti-democratic, anti-egalitarian, and alien to the American way of life. The same abolitionists that were more than happy to hire ex-slaves slapped No Irish Need Apply signs on their doors. These same progressives, including prominent Unitarian and Congregationalists, came out against not only Smith but Kennedy as well. Many supported the Know Nothings and later progressives supported eugenics, in part to keep the ethnic Catholic population down. A mixed legacy which you more than alluded to, but one that certainly needs to be addressed, and one that lingers today.
…but I did research in college regarding the Know-Nothing surge in MA and concluded that at least as much as Irish immigration, the fact that the party outflanked both Democrats and Whigs on abolition contributed to that surge. I’d love for Democrats to match their success though. The 1854 election resulted in Know-Nothing unanimity in the State Senate, US House Delegation, the constitutional offices, Governor’s Council, and almost in the State House. Yes, the Puritans persecuted, but Jefferson wrote that all men are created equal while insisting on pursuing his runaway slaves. So in both cases far from perfect, but ultimately pointed the way.
the list would be cutting edge.
the list would be cutting edge.