{"id":5304,"date":"2021-02-01T14:22:17","date_gmt":"2021-02-01T14:22:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/learn.elca.org\/jle\/?p=5304"},"modified":"2021-02-01T22:30:03","modified_gmt":"2021-02-01T22:30:03","slug":"review-were-better-than-this-by-elijah-cummings-with-jim-dale","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/learn.elca.org\/jle\/review-were-better-than-this-by-elijah-cummings-with-jim-dale\/","title":{"rendered":"Review: We\u2019re Better Than This, by Elijah Cummings (with Jim Dale)"},"content":{"rendered":"

\u201cSenate minority leader Chuck Schumer said, \u2018His authority came not from the office he held, nor from the timbre of his voice.\u00a0 It came from the moral force of his life.\u201d\u00a0 (page 282)<\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

[1] This posthumously published autobiography invites its reader to experience the moral force of Elijah Cummings’ life and be inspired by his example.\u00a0 Knowing that his time on earth was nearing its end, the congressman and Chair of the House Committee on Oversight and Reform worked on this book.\u00a0 He was determined to leave a legacy that shared his deepest convictions, strongest motivations, and passionate commitment to loving his God and his neighbors in his vocation as an attorney and legislator. \u00a0He hoped he could inspire his future readers to accept the torch he was passing to them as he finished his stretch of the race God calls upon each of us to run.<\/p>\n

[2] The lessons he wants us to learn and to embody aren\u2019t new: every human life is a precious gift from God; we\u2019re put here on earth to care for one another; life is short so don\u2019t fritter it away; practice compassion and kindness in your dealings with others \u2013 including your adversaries; fight the good fight at all times and trust that the good will ultimately prevail, no matter how great the obstacles in its path.<\/p>\n

[3] The strength of his book is not in the novelty of what he tells us, but in his ability to illustrate these lessons with stories that touch, enlighten, and inspire us to follow the path he is encouraging us to take.\u00a0 He does not give us abstract lectures about the truth he wishes us to see.\u00a0 Instead, he tells tales that draw us into the experiences that shaped his life so that they might shape ours as well.<\/p>\n

[4] He teaches us about the fundamental cruelty and injustice of racism by recounting a story his father told him about the grandfather that young Elijah had never known.\u00a0 Grandpa Cummings was a preacher.\u00a0 One day, in front of his congregation, he fainted and did not immediately regain consciousness.\u00a0 His parishioners carried him home and sent for a doctor.\u00a0 Two doctors responded to the calls they received.\u00a0 Elijah\u2019s father, sitting on the porch outside the sickroom, overheard their discussion about what should be done:<\/p>\n

\u201cThe young white doctor said to the older one, \u2018Doc, we have to get this man out of here,\u2019 no doubt to a hospital or clinic, someplace that had better facilities and treatment.\u00a0 He said, \u2018If we don\u2019t get him out of here, he\u2019s going to die.\u2019<\/em><\/p>\n

\u201cThe older doctor said, \u2018Don\u2019t worry about him.\u00a0 He\u2019s only a nigger.\u2019 <\/em><\/p>\n

\u201cMy father, age eight\u2026heard it all, even though they were whispering.\u00a0 \u2018He\u2019s only a nigger.\u2019\u00a0 He\u2019s not a person.\u00a0 He\u2019s something less, someone who can be allowed to die.\u00a0 Without care, without treatment, he could die\u2026Because he was only a nigger.\u00a0 And that night he did die.\u201d<\/em> (pages 23-24)<\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

[5] A few pages later, Elijah Cummings describes how hard his parents worked to support their family.\u00a0 His father worked the swing shift at a chemical company \u2013 jobs that were backbreaking, filthy, demeaning labor.\u00a0 Every day when he came home from work, he would sit for a solid hour alone in his car, summer and winter, before coming into their home.\u00a0 Years later, his father finally explained this ritual to his adult son:<\/p>\n

\u201cWe talked about what it was like at that job in the chemical plant, and he described the way he was treated, the disregard, degradation, and insult.\u00a0 <\/em><\/p>\n

\u201cI was called everything but a child of God,\u2019 he said to me.<\/em><\/p>\n

\u201cThat\u2019s why he sat in his car.\u00a0 That\u2019s why he let the poison drain before facing his family.\u00a0 To this day, I try not to let an insult or affront prevent me from dealing with adversaries.\u00a0 I sit in my car, figuratively not literally, so many times a day or a week or a year, and that enables me to pursue sometimes seemingly impossible tasks.\u201d\u00a0 (page 29)<\/em><\/p>\n

Over and over again, Elijah Cummings refrains from complaining about what happened, explaining why he is justified in nursing his grievances, lamenting about the disadvantages minorities face daily and persistently.\u00a0 He simply tells us his stories, talks about what he learned from his experiences, unpacks the way they shaped the man he became \u2013 and invites us to enter into the story, to identify with his place in it, and to discover what it can teach us about our own life stories and the part we have played in the lives of others.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

[6] This was, for me, the treasure to be found in this autobiography.\u00a0 The stories and the lessons learned — and the repeating refrain that we can be and do better than this in our personal lives and in our life together as a nation — will no doubt appear in devotions that I am asked to lead for church gatherings as well as illustrations in sermons that I preach.<\/p>\n

[7] As I have aged and begun to experience health issues and as I serve a congregation of people coping with a global pandemic\u2019s impact upon their lives, I especially appreciate Elijah Cummings\u2019 struggles with his own mortality.\u00a0 As a young man, he was diagnosed with a rare and fatal cancer.\u00a0 He was given six months to live.\u00a0 Decades later, often plagued by recurrences of his disease and the appearance of other challenges to his physical health, he writes about his conviction that these problems have been a call from God, reminding him that he doesn\u2019t have time to waste, spurring him to greater effort to do all that he is able to do before the final curtain falls upon the story of his life.\u00a0 He speaks again of how his personal pain fuels his passion to alleviate the sufferings of others.<\/p>\n

[8] The final chapter was written by his widow. \u00a0It recounts the tale of his failing health and their struggle not to be defeated by his illnesses and afflictions.\u00a0 Even as he knew the end of his life was fast approaching, Elijah Cummings continued to do the work he felt called by God to do.\u00a0 From his hospital bed, he was laying the groundwork for President Trump\u2019s first impeachment, signing subpoenas, and editing passages from drafts of his autobiography.<\/p>\n

His wife remembers that<\/p>\n

\u201cElijah said to Vernon, \u2018I\u2019m tired.\u00a0 I\u2019m just too tired.\u00a0 I have to get out of here.\u00a0 I\u2019m too tired.\u2019<\/em><\/p>\n

\u201cVernon asked to talk to me and he asked, \u2018Does he mean that he\u2019s tired and wants to get out of there, out of the hospital, to go home and rest?\u00a0 Or does he mean something else?\u2019<\/em><\/p>\n

\u201cSomething else,\u2019 I said.\u201d<\/em>\u00a0 (pages 280-281)<\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

A day or two later, the doctors said nothing more could be done to treat his cancer.<\/p>\n

\u201cElijah asked to be moved to hospice care the same day\u2026we moved him into the facility at nine that evening.\u00a0 There was no prediction as to how long he might be there, how long he had.\u00a0 Less than six hours later, he was gone.\u201d\u00a0 (page 281)<\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

The remainder of the book lists honors he received after his death and remarks made by several speakers at his funeral.<\/p>\n

[9] All in all, this was a deeply satisfying as well as inspiring book to read.\u00a0 However, I should add that large segments of the book concern the last year of Elijah Cummings\u2019 congressional work.\u00a0 Most of that is about gathering evidence and investigating the actions of President Donald Trump in preparation for his first impeachment.\u00a0 While neither Mr. Cummings nor his wife could know the outcome of these efforts as the book went to print, I happened to be reading this book in the aftermath of the November 2020 election and the deep divisions surfacing in our country that eventually found expression in a riotous invasion of the Capitol as Congress attempted to affirm the election of Joe Biden.\u00a0 I did not appreciate so much ink spent on telling me things which were very old news to me.\u00a0 Later generations may benefit from the recital of all the material collected by the Committee for Oversight and Reform under the leadership of Elijah Cummings.\u00a0 I found these sections tedious to read and believe most current readers could skip over them without missing the many benefits to be found in the telling of this honorable man\u2019s life story.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\u201cSenate minority leader Chuck Schumer said, \u2018His authority came not from the office he held, nor from the timbre of his voice.\u00a0 It came from the moral force of his life.\u201d\u00a0 (page 282) [1] This posthumously published autobiography invites its reader to experience the moral force of Elijah Cummings’ life and be inspired by his […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":5326,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[15],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-5304","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-book-review"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nReview: We\u2019re Better Than This, by Elijah Cummings (with Jim Dale) - Journal of Lutheran Ethics<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/learn.elca.org\/jle\/review-were-better-than-this-by-elijah-cummings-with-jim-dale\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Review: We\u2019re Better Than This, by Elijah Cummings (with Jim Dale) - 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