To Act, Or Not To Act

Have you ever felt inspired, hopeful, able and optimistic about your ability to right a wrong?

Have you ever felt frustrated, small, ineffective and helpless about your ability to do anything about a problem?

Recently my wife and I saw the movie “The Butler,” starring Forest Whitaker and Oprah Winfrey, and, in what is probably the most intentionally ironic casting in the history of moviemaking, Jane Fonda as Nancy Reagan. Although the supposedly true story was certainly exaggerated as only Hollywood can do it, the film starkly brought forth the dilemma between smiling and accepting the status quo and making the best you can of an intolerable situation, as opposed to taking large and even uncalculated risks to try to change away from its wrongs.

So what can or what should we do? The huge message from the film is: both.

In life, some issues are actually worth dying for, but trying to right some intolerable wrongs can sometimes simply turn people into martyrs without anything good coming from their efforts. The trick is determining which is which.

In my life, I am deeply regretful to say, I had an opportunity when I was in college to take a stand against racism. When I was in a fraternity at UCLA between 1962 and 66, we were almost literally instructed by our alumni advisor that we must not pledge anyone who would “not be acceptable” to every chapter in the country. Translation: no Blacks or Jews allowed! Looking back, my having accepted that dictate without actively opposing it is a big failure in my life.

(By the way, I understand that this same rule is still in effect in many fraternities and sororities in the Deep South and even elsewhere, and this is completely unacceptable!)

But at least I find solace that later in my life I protested actively against the table grape industry when it was mistreating the migrant farmworkers, our country’s invasion of Cambodia during the Vietnam conflict, and the failed and hopeless policy of the so-called War on Drugs.

Of course, life isn’t perfect – and it never will be. I even raised my children with the saying that “Who Says Life is Fair?” So to some degree we all must face and accept reality. But I also believe that if there is nothing in life that a person would actively protest, that person is probably morally dead.

Along those lines, I often play a mental game by asking myself what some public figures that I observe would have done during our Revolutionary War: would they have been Patriots, at appreciable risk to their safety and treasure, or would they have been Royalists and continue to be subservient to the King of England? In my view, most people would have continued to serve the king.

That conclusion is substantiated by history, because it was only a minority of people in the 1770s in our country who actively worked for our independence from the crown. And that is also true with the movements for civil rights and gender equality. But thankfully we had people during each of those times who were prepared to take risks for their and our freedoms.

And we still do.

In many ways, and mostly through no fault of our own, we are all so truly blessed in this life to be who we are, live where we live and have what we have. But, as Ronald Reagan and many other inspirational leaders have said, “Freedom is not free,” and it can survive only if we are vigilant in its protection

Would you be a Patriot, or a Royalist? Are there some things you would sacrifice for? Are there injustices that are happening now involving you or others that you will look back on later, like I have, and wish you had stood up more actively against them?

I once had a clerk in my courtroom who taped a hand-printed sign over her desk that read: “If it’s to be, it’s up to me.” That is a hard standard to live up to, but we all should try.

James P. Gray is a retired judge of the Orange County Superior Court, the author of “A Voter’s Handbook: Effective Solutions to America’s Problems” (The Forum Press, 2010), and the 2012 Libertarian candidate for Vice President, along with Governor Gary Johnson as the candidate for President. Judge Gray can be contacted at [email protected].

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