By Barbara Falconer Newhall
Lt. Col. Alexander Vindman’s words, “Right matters,” during his testimony before the House Intelligence Committee last week made me think of Geoff Machin, a physician and one of the people I so much enjoyed interviewing for my book, “Wrestling with God: Stories of Doubt and Faith.”
Vindman’s story is one of profound trust — faith — in the possibility of human righteousness, faith in ordinary people’s ability and willingness to do the right thing. And faith in the institutions and norms that have kept the American project on keel for 232 years.
The story that Geoff Machin tells in my book is one of profound trust as well. Machin is a scientist through and through. He accepts the “red in tooth and claw” nature of human nature. Human beings, he told me, like every other creature on earth, are “locked in a deadly struggle with every other individual — within the species and across the species.” For him the natural world is a bloodbath.
Yet Machin also claims to witness from time to time genuine acts of human kindness, acts that belie the imperatives of natural selection: people who travel to the other side of the world to provide needed vaccines in hostile countries. People who risk their lives to care for the victims of Ebola.
It seems to me that Vindman is an example of the potential for goodness that Machin sees in humanity’s otherwise deadly struggle. Vindman could have ducked. He could have looked out for Number One, but he didn’t. He spoke up.
For the past three years I’ve been amazed at the number of genuinely amoral, venal people going in and out of the White House. People willing to dismantle human norms and institutions that have been millennia in the making.
Last week, listening to the impeachment testimonies of Vindman, Fiona Hill, David Holmes, Marie Yovanovich and others, I was be amazed — no reminded — of how many thoughtful, conscientious, moral people are indeed walking around on this planet, people with faith in the value of loyalty, duty and truth. They are people of faith, whether they think of themselves that way or not.
More about Machin at “Geoff Machin: We Go Looking for God When We Could Be Having a Beer.”
Hi Barb:
Finally read this, long after Col. Vindman’s testimony became lost in the flood of commentaries, analyses, other testimonies, and posturing around the impeachment hearings. Nice to be brought back to ground with a look at the character of the man who spoke. This also inspired me to read your interview with Geoff Machin in “Wrestling with God”. I value these reminders to remember the larger context of life and faith … and not to let news and politics define “reality”
Thanks, Callie. It’s reassuring to know that there are still lots of good people out there, slogging away at making the world a little better, day by day.