Editor’s note: This commentary is by T. Elijah Hawkes, who is an educator and writer.
Able-bodied guys in my book group have guns. The able-bodied teacher across the road has a couple. The able-bodied guy with the vineyard next door has guns – I’ve heard him with his semi-automatic rifle – and so do the neighbors up the hill with the excavators. Able-bodied students at the school where I work have guns, many of them hunters. In fact, the county where I work as high school principal ranks high on a list of the most heavily armed counties in the nation. That’s what I hear from able-bodied law enforcement officers in the region.
I repeat the phrase “able-bodied” because of the historical significance of those words in the context of public life, especially when weapons are involved, and especially at times when leaders at the highest levels won’t commit to peaceful democratic transitions.
Last month, Donald Trump Jr., the president’s son, called upon “every able-bodied man and woman” to join an “army” to watch the polls this election time. “We need you to help us watch them,” he said. Jill Lepore discusses such language in a recent essay about slavery and policing. She starts in 13th century England, where keeping “the peace” was the job of a constable “aided by his watchmen.” This practice would migrate to North America, where watchmen joined local militias to hunt down Black people in flight from slavery. Serving on these patrols, writes Lepore, “was required of all able-bodied men.” Don Jr.’s call, and his father’s September instructions to white supremacists to “stand by,” echo this history, both the menace and the color lines.
“History begins with etymology,” writes Lepore. So too violence begins with words. Consider that the men plotting to kidnap the governor of Michigan called themselves watchmen. In this historical and contemporary context, calls to “watch” and “stand by” carry invitation to intimidation and violence, and in 2020 too many people are heeding the call with murderous result.
Thankfully, other people – all around us – are choosing to deploy their able bodies in nonviolent democratic engagement. Earlier this month, I opened the local paper of the town where I work and I saw page after page of public dialogue about who to vote for and why: two full color pages profiling local candidates, and an additional two pages of letters by citizens endorsing or critiquing those candidates.
In that same paper, the week before, I read a letter to the editor written by students in my school’s Racial Justice Alliance class. This class includes students of different races, various professional family backgrounds, different learning needs, some from immigrant families, others from families here many generations – every one of these students differently-abled with a range of talents and passions. They were writing to express their intention to continue public dialogue about racism, school curriculum and school policy. Even in a time of division, these young people are courageously joining the conversation about who we are as a community and nation.
In none of this public, local, election-time discourse is there a call to watch one’s neighbor, or instructions to stand-by ready for violence. And to not use this language is a choice these citizens are making. Nearly every person contributing to this public conversation has access to guns and to words that could threaten or bully – and they are choosing not to use them. Our youth and our neighbors are often better at engaging in public life than our politicians. Let that be the case this election time.The “able-bodied” includes all of us, the variously gifted children of one human family. If your neighbor, a relative, or a young person you know speaks of watching, patrolling, or monitoring this election with weapon in hand, don’t let it go unnoticed. Even if it’s an aside, or if they say it’s a joke – take it seriously and talk to them. Tell them to vote their conscience but leave their guns in the gunsafe. Ask them what they mean by the words they’ve chosen and help them envision better ways to live the shared values – like freedom and unity – that we all hold dear.