She called herself “Nightbirde” when she was performing, and for some reason her audition on America’s Got Talent (AGT) caught my eye. AGT is one of several TV shows that try to discover the next great music star by having aspiring artists compete for the votes of judges and audiences. The shows can be surprising, funny, poignant, or even boring. The last quality and a busy schedule militate against me watching regularly, but for some reason this young lady was compelling.
Her real name was Jane Marcjewski. She was reed thin, attractive, high spirited, and talented, and she projected vulnerability and honesty. As the judges questioned her, it came out that Jane had been a professional singer but had not been regularly employed for some time because cancer had invaded her. The panel and the audience were instantly silenced, but Nightbirde was undaunted, and as it became clear that the disease was threatening her life, the odd dynamic that developed was Nightbirde reassuring the judges and the audience that she was “okay.” She said matter-of-factly, “It’s important the everyone knows that I am so much more than the bad things that happen to me.” A nice sentiment in any circumstance but hearing it from a woman in a fight for her life made it far more powerful. Immediately, Nightbirde had made me want to know her story and how she was able to cope so amazingly.
The rest of the performance and Nightbirde’s comments can be seen here.
It was a powerful, touching spectacle, and the audience and the judges responded accordingly. It was amazing TV at its best. Unfortunately, that night may have been the last best night of Nightbirde’s life because she passed away on February 19th, 2022. Jane’s death inspired an outpouring of emotion from people all over the world, and she was universally acclaimed for her grace, honesty, and humanity. That response to the death of one woman can give one hope for a world awash in people that are far less uplifting. As Jane was on the verge of death and giving thanks for the chance to enjoy God’s creation for 31 too short years, other humans with far more reason to be grateful and full of gratitude, mercy, charity, and yes, love, were instead planning to end the lives of thousands, perhaps tens of thousands, over political objectives and power. The ultimate toll of pain suffering, death and destruction in the Ukraine is far in the future, but it will be terrible.
The temptation is to shrug off what happened in Ukraine this week as the inevitability of a totalitarian system that has been in place in one form or another in Russia for a thousand years. That would be a mistake. The Russian system merely allows a man who is a hate filled, soulless, power monger to be as brutal as he wants to be without fearing consequences. Count on it, President Xi of China is no more or less brutal and ruthless than Vladimir Putin. He is just more powerful and certain of his nation’s ultimate success, so he is less given to precipitous action. Many elected leaders are just as ruthless and immoral, but they are constrained by their systems until a critical mass of the public agrees with them. Then, their true character is revealed. We saw that clearly in our own country all over the Old South in the Jim Crow laws enacted there. It would have been impossible without public support.
Current liberal leaders and the media want Americans to think that southern whites and their descendants are the original sinners in this nation. In the left-wing mythology those “crackers” were the ones who oppressed, intimidated, and lynched their fellow black Americans while the ancestors of the John Kerrys of the world were all abolitionists trying to stand against the hatred of their fellow white citizens. Incredibly inconveniently for the left, the folks running Jim Crow society were all Democrats. More problematically, when race problems erupted outside the South, they almost invariably occurred in Democrat controlled cities. Is that because Democrat voters are worse people than GOP voters? No, it is because the Democrat Party system, like China’s and Russia’s, allows bad leaders to exert their will more easily than the GOP system does. Seeing that is true, would-be despots gravitate toward the Democrat party more readily than to the GOP.
Much of that system is facilitated by left wing attitudes. There is shared set of beliefs that is common among left wing politicians and voters worldwide. They do not speak of them often, and when they do, they generally share them in academic setting where their comments can be passed off as academic speculation, but make no mistake, they believe what they are saying. What are they saying? Trudeau Praises China for DICTATORSHIP at Liberal ‘Ladies Night’ Fundraiser – Bing video Is it any surprise that years later this man would be trying to make himself the dictator of Canada and abusing his powers to persecute working class Canadians who disagree with his policies? If Canada gave him the power to impose capital punishment, does anyone doubt this shallow, power drunk man would use it?
We might console ourselves with the thought that there are no Jim Crow politicians left in America. Furthermore, Canada is more socialist than not, so perhaps it was bound to breed a Trudeau, but we can assume American leaders are not like that. We might, but we would have to forget our very own tyrant cheerleaders:
Obama attacks the police, praises the violent, communist group, BLM (independentsentinel.com)
The moral of this story is that people who seek and obtain power need to be restrained by the system, or they will use the system to destroy their opponents and gain more power for themselves. The fatal flaw of socialist government is that all power is ultimately in the hands of the government and not the people. As we have just seen in Canada, a socialist government is ripe for the taking if a talented and ruthless demagogue gains power. It is an alarming and depressing fact that is so unpleasant that humans refuse to accept it despite thousands of years of history demonstrating that it is true. We prefer to think that all people aspire to be as admirable, courageous and good hearted as Jane Marcjewski. The world would certainly be a more enjoyable and loving place if our preference was reality. Unfortunately, the truth is a much harder pill to swallow. More importantly, it warns us that unless there are people with the ethics of Jane and the sensibilities of the people who appreciated and mourned her who are also willing to enter the arena and oppose a Justin Trudeau, George Wallace, Bernie Sanders, or Hugo Chavez, this world will have fewer and fewer Jane Marcjewskis to admire. Jane was a product of a culture that values individuals for their own worth, and of her personal faith and virtues. She would never have been on a stage in Afghanistan, or Rwanda, or China. Nightbirde’s short but amazing life is a tribute to freedom as well as to her.
Godspeed, Jane Marcjewski. May we continue to keep this country the one that made you happy and loved.
Ned Claybrook
26 Feb 2022
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