Kareem Abdul-Jabbar has written a succinct piece about his experience at last week’s Democratic National Convention. It covers his reservations and revelations in a perfectly focused way. The Khan family’s speech to the American people, which has moved millions of Americans, also clarified something for Mr. Abdul-Jabbar: what we must do, what we have always done, what we want our children to do long after we are gone—is protect the idea of America.
Khizr Khan’s impassioned speech last week at the Democratic National Convention about the heroics of his Muslim-American son didn’t just shame Donald Trump’s crude lack of American values—it reminded us of a quaint concept that we haven’t paid too much attention to lately: sacrifice. Since John F. Kennedy in his 1961 inaugural speech encouraged Americans to “ask not what your country can do for you, ask what you can do for your country,” we haven’t really had much of a national discussion about the role sacrifice plays in maintaining a free society.
Kareem Abdul-Jabbar talks about his psychic exhaustion after having watched the mobs of the RNC cheer while Donald Trump feeds off of “America’s insides until bloated with our vital organs” and destroys the host. But the claustrophobia of the RNC gave way to Khizr Khan’s exhilarating speech.
Whatever doubts, depression, or disgust I felt before were washed away by Mr. Khan. I realized that Capt. Khan’s sacrifice—as well as the sacrifices made by so many others to protect our Constitution—demanded that we don’t indulge in lazy melancholy or hipster cynicism, but work twice as hard to make sure those sacrifices are not in vain. The day after Mr. Khan’s speech, Trump responded in the typical non-sequitur confusion of a head trauma patient: “I think I’ve made a lot of sacrifices.”[7]
So, my first time attending the DNC changed me. But the Khan family and other courageous people have rejuvenated and invigorated me for the fight ahead. Because it’s a fight that must be won. No matter the sacrifice.
The idea has not changed for hundreds of years and cannot be quoted enough.
It is for us the living, rather, to be dedicated here to the unfinished work which they who fought here have thus far so nobly advanced. It is rather for us to be here dedicated to the great task remaining before us -- that from these honored dead we take increased devotion to that cause for which they gave the last full measure of devotion -- that we here highly resolve that these dead shall not have died in vain -- that this nation, under God, shall have a new birth of freedom -- and that government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth.
Hear, hear.