I’m reeling along with my country after tragic, horrible events of the last 24 hours. Two black men in different cities shot and killed by police officers. Five police officers dead after a US serviceman sniped them during demonstrations. We are not done with race as a point of dangerous division in our country.
Race is a central – if not the central – issue in our current election drama, too. Most of the people in my circles stand flabbergasted at the support Mr. Trump trumps up. I am not flabbergasted. And I even appreciate that he has brought to light the truth that keeps bubbling around at the edge of our American story these days: racism is alive and well, along with many other “isms” that are cliched at this point – elitism being perhaps the most potent. (I’m sure someone would call me a feminist but I won’t think of my story in terms of other people’s cliches. I’m a woman, so that’s technically the card I can play. I’m not a Spanish speaker or have higher amounts of melanin in my skin so I can only play the feminist card. However, I’m determined not to play a card.) I am here to put forward an idea I hope you will consider well even though I’m a woman – that we must commit to the idea of America, of United States, of the working through of democracy in the practical space of discourse – of seeking the ties that bind us – if we are to stay afloat as a country.
When I was a little child, my family attended a small, rural church in northern New England. Each month when we had communion, we sang the song, “Blessed be the tie that binds our hearts…” I take this statement up now – not as a Christian, but as a human and an American. Our central question must be: What are the ties that bind us?
To start finding those ties that bind us, we could start by thinking about what we want, even as we mourn the tragic and unfair deaths of Philando Castile and Alton Sterling and five Dallas-Fort Worth Police Officers picked off by a US serviceman from a rooftop above a crowd demonstrating the deaths of Philando and Alton. (Yes – this is the course we are on.)
If we want security, we may have a clue. We all want to be safe. We all want our children to be safe, our mothers and fathers. We can all agree on that. I conclude then that, if any person does not feel safe because he or she is a certain color of skin or fears another person because of their skin, we are all not safe. That’s the lesson here.
We all want to have freedom to make our lives our own. If anyone loses their life and the circumstances were criminal and not handled fairly, there is a chance that I too do not have the freedom we love. This means we all must protect each other’s freedom in order to enjoy our own.
We all want to trust our government and our law enforcement. If you do not trust your government or law enforcement, I can’t trust them either. We must all have trust in these institutions if our country and American dream can survive.
If we cannot find the ties that bind, we can be assured America will become the next saga of intergroup hatred and killing. We will lose our freedoms, our chance to feel safe, our power and glory. We must find these ties of human love that bind us beyond our cliched group identities, our cliques and gangs and clubs.
How do we build – or rebuild – trust?
I say we focus on ourselves first and decide to listen and respect other voices, no matter how well we understand or agree with them. We stop thinking we alone are right and start thinking we are all Americans and humans. We must reverse this trend and focus on life, liberty and pursuit of justice for all.
annehdavidson 