“What Kind of Man Are You, Atticus Finch?”

In 1960, Harper Lee’s antagonist Bob Ewell spat out this question to Atticus Finch once he realizes that Finch believes Tom Robinson’s word—a black man’s—in the case of sexual assault of Ewell’s daughter, Mayella. Aaron Sorkin’s new adaption of To Kill a Mockingbird is now playing (in previews) on Broadway, and my wife and I had the unexpected pleasure to see this work in progress.
And progress is the key to this play because Sorkin has made a decision about what kind of man Atticus Finch will become as the play closes. I don’t intend to put out an explicit spoiler, but suffice it to say, at the play’s finale, Atticus Finch has had enough of the ignorance and vicious nature of some men like Ewell and the twelve white men who sat on the jury in judgment of Tom Robinson and “went along” with the racism and bigotry of the day.


However, the real question Sorkin asks is this: Today, and in the next two years to come, what kind of people are we becoming? Are we people who will acquiesce to the fear stoked by our current president about people from other countries, religions and cultures? Are we the kind of people who think ‘might makes right’? Are we people who feel morally superior to those who are escaping homelands that have become, for reasons beyond their control, failed states? Are we to become isolationists, and have we abandoned the creed that America is the “beacon of hope and freedom”?
Indeed, recent events have shown that our ‘superpower’ status cannot police the world; that we cannot create and maintain new nation/states. Iraq, Afghanistan, Syria are just part of the world order America cannot control militarily. What many of these nations, and others like them, have in common is that they are racked by poverty, climate disaster, corruption, and an insistence on denying human rights, especially to women. The last thing they need are bullets and bombs. Quite the contrary. In Yemen, our weapons are being used by Saudi powers to obliterate innocent civilians and divide a nation. Yemen is a complex power struggle, to say the least.
President Eisenhower questioned our military industrial complex when he noted the danger that war can be oh-so-profitable. Instead of humanitarian actions and open arms to aid the victims of brutal leaders (willing to use their own civilians as human shields), this administration and its defenders have been asking what’s in it for us?  Why should we take “your tired, poor, Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free. The wretched refuse of your teeming shore.”? The Statue of Liberty’s creed stands in direct contradiction with the chant “Build the Wall!” And the reasons that caravans leave their homes in the Middle East, Central Africa, and Central America are complex: drug kingpins willfully murdering, the inability of the parched soil to grow the crops that once made life plentiful, the sadistic leaders who are willing to kill in the name of their Creator or to maintain power, and a pompous former KGB agent who sees himself as the next Stalin, with his Swiss bank accounts and squads of assassins and hackers.
President Obama fought the good fight. He did as much as possible to deal with these issues of a magnitude not seen since the Great Depression and WWII. He inherited an economy in reckless ruin; an obstinate Senate and a conspiracy ridden, self serving right wing media that painted him as extreme because he had the temerity to insist that all Americans should have health care as a right. Those responsible for 9.11 were caught, imprisoned, and some paid the ultimate price for their murderous deeds. The Dow Jones climbed steadily, and according to Quora: "When Obama left office, Jan 20, 2017, the Dow closed at 19,827. When he entered office, Jan 20, 2009, the Dow closed at 7,949. In other words, in his 8 years in office the Dow went up roughly 250%.” True, the gap between rich and poor, as well as wage growth, remained unacceptable. The effort to make a “more perfect union” needed to continue.
Whether it is President Reagan, Carter, Bush Sr., Clinton, or Bush, Jr. one norm held constant: to build on the work of past presidents and make Americans more secure. Sadly, that changed when this administration took over. “American Carnage” was Trump’s Inaugural anthem: pit us against each other by political party, race, religion, income and country of origin. Why? Because we can’t trust others. The “invaders” will take the jobs (that most Americans have no interest in working); they will demand a vote (and we can’t have the majority decide policy); and why should I have to pay for others’ health via the ACA (when we do anyway in emergency rooms)?
So that brings me back to the question posed: why did Atticus Finch defend Tom Robinson? What could possibly be in it for him and his children? What kind of man was he? In the newest rendition of Sorkin’s Mockingbird, Atticus realizes in the 1930’s the Civil Rights battle is lost, but he says to his daughter Scout, who also questions his defense of Robinson, “The one thing that doesn’t abide by majority rule is a man’s conscience….Courage is when you know your licked before you begin, but you see it through anyway. Sometimes you win…”. And that same battle to enlighten others toward more rational, less self-serving actions is threatened today. 
One reason why: Donald Trump is no Atticus Finch.