“Politics as a Good
Thing”
(Looking at Adlai
Stevenson)
An Intergenerational
Service for
the Unitarian Universalist
Church of
Winchendon,
Massachusetts
18
February 2007
The
Rev. Jennie Ann Barrington
Call
to Worship, the
words of Adlai Stevenson (see McKeever bio, p. 258):
“Looking
back, I am content. I have told you the truth as I see it. I have
said what I meant and meant what I said. I have not done as well as I
should like to have done, but I have done my best, frankly and
forthrightly; no [person] can do more and you are entitled to no
less.”
The
Morning Reading, the words of Adlai Stevenson (see McKeever bio, p.
257):
“I
have traversed the
New England hills, ablaze with autumn color, and felt the touch of
the soft air of the Southland. I have flown over the mighty
mountains to the Golden Gate and the blue Pacific. I have flown over
fir-clad slopes and the rolling wheatlands of the great Northwest,
and over the lonely cattle lands of the old Southwest. I have
traveled the route my forebears followed westward to Illinois. I have
seen the old stone houses in the Pennsylvania hills, and I have come
home to the sweep and the swell of the free soil of our beloved
Illinois. I have seen an America where all of the signs read “Men
at Work.” But we have much to do in this century in this country
of
ours before its greatness may be fully realized and shared by all
Americans. As we plan for change, let us be sure that our vision is
high enough and broad enough so that it encompasses every single hope
and dream of both the greatest and the humblest among us. I see an
America where slums and tenements have vanished and children are
raised in decency and self-respect. I see an America where men and
women have leisure from toil-- leisure to cultivate the resources of
the spirit. I see an America where no man is another’s
master-where no man’s mind is dark with fear. I see an America at
peace with the world. I see an America as the horizon of human hopes.
This is our design for the American cathedral, and we shall build it
brick by brick and stone by stone, patiently, bravely, and
prayerfully. And, to those who say that the design defies our
abilities to complete it, I answer: To act with enthusiasm and faith
is the condition of acting greatly.”
Homily:
Adlai
Stevenson was a Unitarian who ran for President of the United States.
He ran for President in 1952-- and he didn’t win. Then he ran
for President again in 1956-- and he didn’t win then, either. But
that doesn’t mean we shouldn’t bother learning about him.
He is
an excellent reminder to us that, in a competition between two
people, the one who loses is still worth looking at. Similarly, you
all know that Al Gore ran for President and didn’t win. And you
also know that Al Gore went on to research and make a very important
movie that teaches people the facts about global warming. [And
we’re
going to show that movie, “An Inconvenient Truth,” at the
Winchendon Town Hall this week, twice.] There’s still a lot
that’s
great about Al Gore even though he didn’t become President-- And
there’s a lot we can learn from looking at Adlai Stevenson even
though he didn’t become President.
These
days when you hear people talk about politics, it usually sounds like
a bad thing. People say the word “politics” like it’s
to blame
for cheating, lying, corruption, wasteful spending, and even the
problems with what school children have to do in school and no longer
get to do in school. But Adlai Stevenson imagined politics as a good
thing. And he worked with people to try to make American life a good
life for everyone who lives in America. And he wanted people who
lived in all the other countries in the world (large countries and
small countries) to be able to have a good life, too. The way that he
helped make that come to pass was by helping to establish the United
Nations (also called the U.N.). Can any of you tell me what state the
United Nations is in? [New York] After he lost his run for President
the second time, Adlai Stevenson was made the United States’
Ambassador to the United Nations. It was a very important job, and
it’s what most people still remember most about him. He said,
“The
whole basis of the United Nations is the right of all nations
–great
or small- to have weight, to have a vote, to be attended to, to be a
part of the twentieth century.”
Who
can tell me what state Adlai Stevenson was born in? [California] He
was born into a political family, which means that his father and his
grandfather were in politics. Adlai Stevenson’s grandfather was
Vice President of the United States at a time when the President of
the United States’ last name was Cleveland, and that
President’s
first name was the same name as a Muppet on Sesame Street. Who can
guess what that President’s first name was? [Grover] Who can tell
me what state Adlai Stevenson grew up in? [Illinois] He became
Governor of Illinois, and was a great Governor. He ended a lot of the
corruption there and put programs in place to make people’s lives
better. He would have liked to keep being Governor of Illinois, but
many people wanted him to run for President. He didn’t really
want
to run for President, and he didn’t really think he would win.
But
the fact that he ran made the election more about important joys and
concerns instead of just being about gossip. And the fact that he ran
made America a better country. Adlai Stevenson had some great ideas
about how to make America and the world better; like no nuclear
weapons and no military draft. Those ideas were ahead of his time,
but other Presidents adopted his ideas later.
Adlai
Stevenson had a habit of doubting himself, being critical of himself,
telling jokes that made fun of himself, and thinking of himself as
not worth much. This true story from when he was twelve years old may
explain why he was so hard on himself. It’s a very serious
story-- But
it’s something that haunted him for the rest of his whole life
[see pp. 30-31]:
His
older sister, Buffie, was having a Christmas dinner party with her
friends. Adlai was considered to be too young to be at their party,
so he was given dinner early and sent up to his room. Their parents
were at a neighbor’s house. One of the boys at Buffie’s
party,
Bob Whitmer, had learned how to “present arms” with a rifle
at
his military school. He said he wished he had a gun so he could show
the friends at the party how he had learned to do the presentation of
a rifle. “Buffie called upstairs to Adlai and asked him to go to
the attic and look for an old .22 rifle she thought was there. Adlai
ran down with it and handed it to Bob Whitmer who examined it to make
sure there were no bullets in it, proudly explaining that such
checking was always required at school. To the applause of the group,
he smartly [did the presentation of arms], then handed the gun back
to Adlai to be returned to the attic. As Adlai excitedly imitated the
older boy’s movements the gun went off. One of the girls, Ruth
Merwin, [was accidentally shot by Adlai].” Adlai felt terrible
and
cried and moaned. The little girl’s mother did not want to make
Adlai feel any worse than he already did. She knew it had been an
accident, and she knew that Adlai was a responsible, considerate, and
sensitive boy. But for years and years, no one ever talked about what
happened, and Adlai continued to feel terrible inside about what he
did. This tragic true story reminds us how extremely important it is
not to play with guns; guns are not toys. And it also reminds us
that it is important to talk about tragic things that happen in our
lives, and talk about how we feel about those things.
Many years
later, Adlai Stevenson heard about a woman whose young son had been
involved in a similar accident, accidentally shooting someone with a
gun. Adlai wrote to the woman and told her what to say to her son.
“Tell him, that he must live for two.” That may explain why
he
was so motivated to serve the public-- to figure out ideas and
programs that would make lots of people’s lives better-- lots of
people he did not even know and would never even meet. He just
wasn’t
interested in becoming really rich, or in owning lots of stuff, or in
being best friends with powerful people just because they had power.
As
a boy he loved camping, all kinds of trains, and stamp collecting.
Stamp collecting led him to be very interested in geography,
history, travel, and especially castles and cathedrals. He was a
late-bloomer; it often took him a few tries to pass a written test.
But he had great curiosity, imagination, and physical energy. As an
adult, he had good manners, he was a great sports fan, and he loved
lively conversations with people, especially women. People he was in
conversation with always felt he really respected them and cared
about who they really were. Eleanor Roosevelt was his very close
friend, and she also helped establish the United Nations. Even though
he sometimes went to a Presbyterian church, he was always a
Unitarian. He said, “I believe that if we really want human
brotherhood to spread and increase until it makes life safe and sane,
we must also be certain that there is no one true faith or path by
which it may spread.”
The two other things people remember about
Adlai Stevenson are that he took a stand against McCarthyism, and
that he was very thrifty with spending money. There’s a famous
photograph of Adlai that shows that his shoes are so worn down,
there’s a hole in the bottom of one of them. He tried to get
every
bit of mileage out of his shoes before he bought new ones. That
photograph won the Pulitzer Prize because it summed up Adlai
Stevenson so well.
The
author of his biography, Porter McKeever, said the main thing he
wanted to say about the life of Adlai Stevenson was “that losing
an
election is not failure. That, in the course of losing, you can have
a number of very important victories. And that the mark you can leave
on your time is not measured by the ego satisfaction that you get or
the high public office you actually succeed in winning; it’s what
impact you make on the thinking and the quality of life in your time.
And… that morality in public life is not out of fashion…
by
being reminded of Adlai, a lot of this can be reinvigorated again. And
we do need it.” [booknotes .org p. 23]
November
of 1952 was when Americans voted for either Adlai Stevenson or
General Eisenhower for President. On that Election Day, Adlai
Stevenson voted in the town of Libertyville, in the state of Illinois
[since he was still Governor of Illinois], at a country schoolhouse.
After he voted, he gathered a group of school children around him,
who had been playing outside the schoolhouse. He said to them [see
McKeever bio, p. 258]:
“’I
would like to ask all of you children to show, by holding up your
hands, how many of you would like to be Governor of Illinois, the way
I am.’ He counted the hands, and said, ‘Well, that’s
almost
unanimous. Now, I would ask the Governors here if they would like to
be one of you kids.’ With a whoop his hand shot up. Then, in a
more serious tone, he went on [to say]: ‘I don’t know
whether you
understand what is going on here this morning very well. I am not
sure I do [understand it] myself. But what you see here is something
that does not happen everywhere in the world. Here are a lot of your
parents and your neighbors going over to the schoolhouse to cast
their vote. That means they are deciding for themselves who is going
to lead them [as President] . . . What that means is, we decide who
governs us. It is not everybody in the world who can do that. These
are the things you read about in the history books, that your
ancestors have been struggling for generations-- not only to get the
right to govern themselves but to keep it. Perhaps the main thing
you will remember about this day is that you got half a day off from
school. I am sure I have enjoyed this as much as you have, and what
I would like to do is to spend the recess playing in the yard.’
He
asked what they would play and when shouts of baseball, football, and
other sports went up, he asked, ‘Wouldn’t anybody like to
play a
game of mock politics?’ One boy replied, ‘We don’t
like mud
fights.’”
Now
I want to tell you where I got this great big book all about Adlai
Stevenson. When I was in Salem a few weeks ago, I stayed at the
Hawthorne Hotel. There were shelves and shelves of books there for
the people staying there to read. I looked through lots of the
books, enjoying learning about lots of new things, until I found the
one I most wanted to read, this one. I knew he was a Unitarian who
inspired young people, so I decided I wanted to talk to you about
him. Inside each of the books was a bookmark that said: “Please
enjoy this book while you are staying with us at the Hawthorne. If
you wish to take it along with you on your journey, kindly return it
to the Hotel at: 18 Washington Square W., Salem, MA 01970.” Now I
really like this book-- But would it be okay for me to just
keep it? Not. This week I will mail it back to the Hawthorne Hotel,
with a thank you note, so that all the people who stay there --people
from many different countries, and especially young people
like you-- can have the opportunity to read about Adlai Stevenson,
and learn that he is worth looking at, even though he was not
elected President. –because he helped people imagine politics as
a
good thing, and American life as a good life for everyone who lives
here. I’d like to keep this book. But I’m sure Adlai
Stevenson
would return it, if he were standing up here this morning…
What
final words would he choose to say to us this morning if he could?
Well, when he sent Christmas cards to people, he liked to put into
them a quotation or a prayer. These are the words he put into his
Christmas cards once after he had had a particularly difficult year.
They are the words of the poet, Robert Lewis Stevenson:
“Give
us grace and strength
to persevere. Give us courage and gaiety and the quiet mind. Spare
to us our friends and soften us to our enemies. Give us strength to
encounter that which is to come, that we may be brave in peril,
constant in tribulation, temperate in wrath and in all changes of
fortune, and down to the gates of death, loyal and loving to one
another.”
Let
it be and, Amen.