It’s a cliché from a country song: If you don’t stand up for something, you’ll fall for anything.
That’s a line from a 1991 Aaron Tippin song, although the sentiment has clearly been around a lot longer, with versions of the adage attributed to Alexander Hamilton, although he probably never said it.
If he did, he would have written it down.
Rather, it seemed to come into common usage during and after World War II, according the website Quote Investigator, which says the earliest instance they found of a similar statement was in a Methodist church announcement in an Iowa newspaper in 1926, before being used in a January 1945 article in the journal “Mental Hygiene.” The point of the article was that soldiers and returning veterans must have a solid idea of what they were fighting for, not just what they were fighting against.
That’s true for all of us, as Catholics and Christians and even for those who don’t claim a religion. It’s easy to say what we are against — and it’s a good thing to be against violence, to be against hunger, to be against racism. Those are all worthy things to stand up against. Protest is an American tradition, as it should be.
But if we really want to improve things here on Earth, if we want to build up the kingdom of God, we have to also know what we are for, and be able to talk about it.
We are for human dignity. We are for recognizing every human being as being made in the image and likeness of God, even those who don’t look like us, those who don’t worship like us or believe like us or do what we think is right. They are still human, still have dignity and we must recognize the image of the divine in them.
We are for feeding the hungry, sheltering the homeless, clothing the naked, educating the ignorant, caring for the sick, welcoming the stranger and doing what we can to alleviate the suffering of those around us. Yes, even if we don’t think they have anything in common with us.
We are for loving other people as we love ourselves, and in doing so, bringing the love of God to them. Even if, to us, they seem unlovable.
Do I, or does anyone, do this perfectly, or even do it well?
No, probably not. Not really. We each have only so much capacity to take in the suffering and needs of people around us, only so much time and money, and so many responsibilities closer to home. We are human, and time and time again, we fail.
But, time and time again, we get up in the morning and have another day to try again. To encourage our children to both study hard and to be kind to not only their friends, but to those with whom they might not get along. To give a migrant who is trying to get by by selling candy and gum a few dollars, along with a greeting and a smile. To offer a cold drink of water to a letter carrier or to a trash collector on a hot day.
It doesn’t feel like much, but sometimes kindness is the best that we can do.