Bridging the Divide

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On January 6, the anniversary of "The Insurrection"—the attack on the U.S. Capitol—PBS ran a program called Preserving Democracy: Pursuing a More Perfect Union. Frankly, by the time the program aired my wife and I were weary from the focus on January 6 that began shortly after the beginning of the new year. But, it turned out to be an excellent program and I encourage you to watch (it runs nearly 2 hours) and the web page has additional resources.

While the program dealt with January 6, 2021, it approached it from an historical perspective, confirming what an ever-increasing reading of American history has revealed to me: we are a complex nation with a past filled with division, hatred, fear, cantankerous arguments, corrupt elections, blatant misinformation, and violence. Yet, for all the darkness that persists to this day, the American experiment, while fragile, remains alive. While some may view the words Thomas Jefferson penned in our Declaration of Independece a lie because he was a slaveholder, they remain the north star of our experiment, containing truth that transcends the bitter divisions throughout our history and lays down a marker to help us pursue a more perfect union:

We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.

As we celebrate the Martin Luther King, Jr. holiday on Monday, we are reminded of a dream that to many may seem hopelessly lost, even unachievable. Yet for those of us who believe in the potential of the American Experiment, the words cannot be discarded, but need to be held up before us as a national goal, a statement of what America should and can be, despite our differences and painful history:

I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin, but by the content of their character.

Much of the American character remains tarnished, with deep-seated problems that may seem irredeemable.

As the program drew to a close, I was pleased that the focus shifted toward efforts to bridge the divide, from churches to civic groups and a growing number of organizations aimed at bringing people together to find common ground. (Just do a search on "bridging the political divide:" and you will see how many efforts there are, and perhaps find one that you can connect with.). An example of a return to much-needed education in democracy is the iCivics project inspired by former U.S. Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day O'Connor when she retired from the bench.

Outside the realm of politics, I have seen over the years inspiring reports from across America of examples of cooperation among normally warring factions where a common goal has brought people together to produce imaginative and positive solutions. These reports have included areas such as rebuilding sustainable fisheries, forest management, housing, labor, energy, waste mangement. The list goes on. Unfortunately, except for the very ocassional report, most of us are not aware that such efforts are taking place, bringing people together to solve divisive problems.

As my wife and I watched the examples of positive efforts to bring people together in the closing moments of Preserving Democracy, we agreed this is what Americans need to see from now until the mid-term elections in November. In fact, the next night on the PBS News Hour, there was a segment on the subject of bridging the political divide. When the segment ended, however, the news coverage returned to the more typical focus on our highly partisan politics. We cannot ignore the divide, but I believe it is important to find perspective and balance if we are to, indeed, preserve democracy and pursue a more perfect union.

Is the American Dream dead? Is the American Experiment a dismal failure? If your primary source of information is the news, social media and friends who share a dark sense of failure, yes. Reasons for hope seldom get much attention, but they are there, as "Preserving Democracy" illustrated. In fact, human nature propels us in the wrong direction. More attention is gained (while chasing higher ratings and far greater profits) when news, social media and big tech focus on (and drive us toward) division and crisis instead of building understanding of issues, finding common ground and doing their part in Preserving Democracy. They are not mere reporters, but significant contributors, with the potential to blind us or illuminate the path to a more perfect union.

By understanding our roots and dedicating ourselves toward pursuing that more perfect union, ours is an experiment that need not be relegated to the scrap heap of history.

Last year at this time, I wrote a piece titled "Keeping the Dream Alive in 2021," which ended with this:

Just as Martin Luther King, Jr. stood before a crowd on the Washington Mall at a critical time in American history in August, 1963, and Joe Biden will do on Wednesday, January 20, 2021 (to a virtual audience), there are echoes of another speech at a similar time, when Abram Lincoln gave his first inaugural address on March 4, 1861. At that perilous time, he said this (emphasis added):

The mystic chords of memory, stretching from every battlefield and patriot grave to every living heart and hearthstone all over this broad land, will yet swell the chorus of the Union, when again touched, as surely they will be, by the better angels of our nature. (Read more).

And so may it be in 2021, regardless of party, who we did or did not vote for . . . may we all recommit ourselves to keep the dream alive.

That call is even more relevant in 2022!

See a listing of all articles on SeniorLifestyle about Racism and Inequality and Voting and Elections, including nearly two dozen of my own blogs on the subjects (some of which are linked in the 2021 MLK Day piece quoted above).