In memoriam Elijah Cummings
To say that I'm blindsided by this would be an understatement. I hadn't heard an inkling that Mr. Cummings was at all ill.
This is a great loss for us. He was one of the leaders of the push to impeach Donald Trump. For being so, he and his city Baltimore were subjected to vicious, vile, racist attacks by Trump and his sycophants. But he met those attacks with the dignity which was inherent in him, and continued to work to support and defend the Constitution and the Republic. He did that almost until his last day, not allowing his illness to impede his sworn duty.
It's in times like these that we turn to questions of theodicy: Why would a divinity allow evil to occur in the world. It's questions like these which turn many of us against a belief in God or gods or the spirit. A good, kind, decent man like Mr. Cummings is dead, leaving behind family and friends and admirers to mourn, while evil men like Trump or Dick Cheney seem immortal and seem immune from divine justice.
I think to what the pastor said at my father-in-law's funeral. I'm adapting it for a non-believer like myself: We will all die. This life is just a transitory phase. What is the condition of your soul, of your life? Have you made it right with those who love you? How will you be remembered?
We don't know why the good suffer and the evil prosper. It's a question as old as humanity. All we can do is live the best life we can, help the most people we can, be as good of an example as we can. Some people would call that "getting right with God." For me, it's getting right with myself. I want to remembered well, not ill. And Elijah Cummings will be remembered as one of the good men—to his family, his friends, his admirers, and to a grateful nation.
Eternal rest grant unto him, and let perpetual light shine upon him. May he rest in peace.