November 3 , 2021 /

WAKING UP

Waking up this morning to yesterday’s election results shows what we all know, that this is a country that continues to be polarized, divided and fractured.  Put in context, this is a reinforcement to what happened in 2016 and thereafter for the past five years and honestly, much longer than that. The political divisions are significant because they are along race, class and ethnic lines.  They also reflect socio-economic differences between the haves and the have nots.  If we are ever to become these United States rather than these Divided States maybe red and blue should be changed to green and yellow, since white isn’t a color but the lack of same.  Otherwise from some perspectives, the colors might be black and white.  I wish we could forget colors and find a way to put the divisions that separate us behind us so that we can find the common ground to move forward.

Is it possible to restore our faith in the principles on which this country was built and on which it can stand in the future?  What about “these self-evident truths, 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.”????

We need to find a way to shift the attitudes and behaviors from negative to positive, from intentions to destroy to designs to create, from verbiage to constructive action.  Too much rhetoric, too little reality, too much theater of the absurd, too little rational and logical action.  It is time for a paradigm shift in many areas instead of continuing the same behaviors and expecting different results, the definition of insanity.

Etched in stone on the F.D.R. Memorial in Washington, D.C. are these words: “The test of our progress is not whether we add more to those who have much; it is whether we provide for those who have too little.”   That is true globally as well as nationally and locally.  Perhaps we could come together around the most pressing priorities facing all of us and take constructive, creative and responsible actions to solve those most troublesome issues.  Then we would be much more united and stand together, with bonds that strengthen rather than divisions that separate.  Maybe and hopefully, we can find a way to work toward positive change in the will and ability to work together for the common good, not merely partisan interests.  This is the message that each of us needs to send to those who represent us at every level.

In the meantime, we must take every opportunity we have to help heal the divisions that separate us, to share the visions that can unite us and to exert whatever influence we have to demonstrate that we can and will work toward a common purpose with common goals.  All of this is for the commonwealth of our future that can be so much better than it is.  If you believe that, now is time to wake up and do what you can with what you have where you are.

 

Comments (4)

  1. “…now is the time to wake up…” ~ Yes. Reminds me of “The time is always right to do the right thing” ~ and we can rarely do what is right if we aren’t awake to the light of truth, can we? The purveyors of darkness are many. And yet, a single light, weak and flickering though it may seem, can be enough to dispel all those purveyors…

    1. As I referenced in the chat of 11/7, “the light shines in the darkness and the darkness does not overcome it.” In spite of all that is not good, there is still so much that is good as well as good people doing what’s right. Another quote from NT Scripture is this: “whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable–if anything is excellent or praiseworthy–think about such things.”

  2. Gary, I completely agree with your words. The idea of “common good” is so far removed from what our country is experiencing.

    1. Thanks, Shirley. Sad that our country now seems to have so much of what many of us worked for years to resist and overcome. And yet, I remain hopeful for the future, believing that good people will rise to the occasion for positive change.

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