We realize the members of the new party  will ultimately arrive at permanent probably grander name, but we needed a working label. By focusing on the future we hoped to leave behind some of the historical baggage standing in the way of progress.  It seems we as a nation keep singing “another someone done someone wrong song.”  Various minorities seeking the end of white privilege, women retribution on men for a catalogue of miseries and Asians wondering how they arrived at a place where everybody else takes it out on them.  Most of those indicted for group offenses feel they personally did nothing wrong but they and theirs face paying a price anyway..  The truth is everyone has a grievance against someone over something in the past.  This isn’t to minimize past horrors, just the realization exacting a price from the innocent just creates more animosity. Descendants of immigrants from southern and eastern Europe coming well after the civil war called on to pay for the sins of slavery or worse children of Vietnamese boat people forced to surrender their rightful place at a top University may feel unfairly singled out..   Grievance begets grievance in an endless cycle.  While arguing over how to achieve the impossible task of evening up the  score for everyone’s past, we can’t move on to solving  our  present and future problems. In any case our two major parties have made the politics of grievance and reaction into an art form.  No one is going to outdo these two masters in appealing to the aggrieved. Rather than being mired in the past, listen to the words of  Nelson Mandala, “Part of being optimistic is keeping one’s head pointed toward the sun, one’s feet moving forward.”

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