After the Fireworks

Not for a lack of our Heath teachers' trying, I confess I knew basically zero about Frederick Douglass until President Trump's talking about him during Black History Month. And I confess I still hadn't listened to the following speech, which (fantastic) Wikipedia says Mr. Douglass delivered July 5, 1852, until yesterday.

It is amazing. As a Christian churchgoer and American, there is challenging and heart-breaking legacy to be digested here--and, even today, the speech is so firmly rooted in eternal, Divine principles that it buckles me and makes me think about the sins of omission and commission in which I am participant now. I love a happy ending, however, and so I was thrilled to see the speech has the happiest of them. Here's my favorite sentence: "The fiat of the Almighty, 'Let there be Light,' has not yet spent its force."

Thank you, Mr. Douglass, for your patriotism and discipleship (and thank you, President Trump, for turning me on to him).