Tag: Understanding

What does it mean for America to be great?

The theme of Donald Trump’s presidential campaign was Make America Great Again, and this resonated deeply with much of the electorate. Personally, I struggled to understand in what way people thought America had lost its greatness and what his proposals would do to restore it. I admit that with this failure to understand, I often thought the worst of people’s motivations and I want to rectify that. It made me realize that we need a foundational conversation on what it is that makes America great. Please, share your thoughts. How do you define American greatness?

For me, the idea of America is by itself one of the most powerful forces for good in the history of the world. A land where people of varying different faiths and backgrounds came together and mutually agreed to a system of government of the people, by the people, and for the people. Where life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness are core values that we do not compromise, and that are protected by the Bill of Rights. Please review all 10 of them again, as I did just now. We often focus on just a few, and need to remember that all of these rights are most important at the times when our leaders tell us we must abandon them due to fear.

Another core value is that America can be a beacon to people from around the world. America was never just for any one group of people. Anyone who believes in the idea of America and is willing to live up to the responsibility is considered a valuable contributor to our nation. We grow stronger by bringing in people from around the world and incorporating the best of their cultures into our own. There has been resistance to most newcomers from the beginning, but when we look back we see that they have made us better as a nation. Even if we don’t have capacity to take in all comers, we are at our best when we strive to offer the opportunities of America to as many as we can handle.

You may have noticed that I did not mention being number one in the world, whether about having a dominant military or the world’s strongest economy. To me, these characteristics have supported our greatness but are not its foundation. We have faced countless threats to our security over our history and overcome them all. But we only truly damage our place in the world when we succumb to fear and trade off the best of our values in the name of an elusive security. Or place our economic health above our moral health. We should never sacrifice the best of America to the fears of the day.

And that is why we must openly acknowledge and confront the worst of America as well. No nation is perfect, and we do not need to apologize for the fact that we are not. But there are dark times in our past where we have done great harm to those who did not deserve it, and we diminish them as humans if we do not own up to those flaws and vow to learn from them. I can only imagine how my words above must read to a Native American, for example. It would appear that I am dismissive of the fact that much of the foundation of what we have in our country was built by doing great harm to them. We owe it to them to at the very least acknowledge this harm.

It is in looking at when we have failed to live up to our greatness that teaches us how to properly define our values. Examining our periods of moral failure next to our successes gives us a deeper understanding of what the best of this country truly is. I can summarize it by noting that America has been great when we commit to the offering the American dream of life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness for everyone. When we let fear drive us to exclude certain groups from that dream is America at its worst.

My letter to the President-elect can now be seen in the context of this view of American greatness. It is not primarily his core policies that disturb me. It is what he says and it is even what he does not say. He uses ambiguity to let his words support the most hateful and divisive ideas of those who do not believe in an inclusive America and would use fear and resentment to marginalize those who are different. And leave us wondering if that is the route he will choose. It is up to all of us to hold him to a higher standard.

Ringing a bell for unity

Today I start my first blog, and something more too. I have had this concept for a few months now as I watch the divide between the artificial poles of liberal and conservative grow wider and wider. The accepted narrative is that our system produced the 2 worst presidential candidates out of 320 million people in this country. It has been developing over years as we get fired up by what we see in our chosen media, we obsess over politics, and specifically about ensuring that the people we vote for must share our exact beliefs or we consider them a threat to our way of life. We unload our most toxic views on social media or other online channels, often anonymously. We talk at the people we know and tell them why they are wrong and we are right. We selectively choose our facts based on which ones align with our beliefs. And then we lament that the people who are supposed to be leading our country can’t get anything done.

What do we want them to get done? For so many of us, if it is not exactly what we want, they should fight against it and defeat our ‘enemies’, meaning anyone who thinks differently. Compromise is a sign of weakness. Acknowledging that another perspective is valid is continuing the decline of our country. Wanting leaders and representatives who are able to identify problems and come together with solutions that work for the majority of people is a foreign concept. We have picked our team, Democrat or Republican, and know with certainty that an effective leader from the other team is still the wrong choice for our country because their views are wrong. And the independent voters don’t get a pass here either. Even though we haven’t picked a constant team to root for, we still just look for the candidate whose beliefs our closest to our own, regardless of who would be the best leader.

Isn’t there another way? Can’t we listen to each other? I don’t mean hold a conversation where we wait for the other person to stop talking so we can educate them. I mean listen, really listen! Try to understand, put ourselves in their shoes. Acknowledge that their beliefs come from somewhere real. That maybe even if we don’t agree with how they want to deal with it, whatever forces in their lives are leading them to these beliefs come from somewhere deep and profound, and that if these underlying causes go ignored, anger and resentment ensue. And maybe hatred, and self-destructive behavior, or violence towards others, or anything that tells the world that I AM A REAL PERSON AND I MATTER, DAMMIT!

And those feelings are the ones we need to acknowledge and understand and empathize with and address. Once we have educated ourselves on the humanity of those we share this planet with and the genuine emotions they feel, only then can we understand a path forward. Only then can we talk about how to solve the problems we face. Because let’s face it, if you don’t understand the problem, YOU CAN’T SOLVE IT. Sounds obvious, but think about whether or not you really live this idea on a daily basis. And ask yourself whether you want to really hear others or just have them agree with you.

I know many of you are hurting about the election of Donald Trump and scared of what the next four years will bring. Others are excited about the possibilities for change but don’t know what they can count on with someone whose governing approach is a complete unknown. That is why it is critical that we all recognize that the President doesn’t operate in a vacuum. We are the ones who create our culture, and enforce our norms, and set examples for each other, and make this life worth living. And give our leaders the mandate for what they need to accomplish and condone or condemn them when they don’t live up to that standard. And if we want our country to be great, we must come together with those of all beliefs and collectively define our idea of greatness. And recognize that the changes that will help us to be a better place may not be ones that fit our every ideal, but just might do something to improve our collective humanity. The one thing that should be clear to all of us after this election marathon is that there are extensive divides within our society that are only growing deeper. It is not up to the politicians. It is our responsibility.

So what do we do? The answer is different for all of us, but the only answer that is not okay is sitting on the sidelines and watching and complaining about the system. Trust me, I have done that for too long and even writing these words is building a feeling of growth and optimism within me. My answer is to do my small part to facilitate the building of community and understanding among people with differing viewpoints. And if you are reading this, I want you to take part and recognize that you have a voice that should be heard by others, as well as having the ability to grow by listening to their voices.

The idea is that I will use this blog to post about challenging topics. I’ll try to frame questions that draw out your thoughts, as well as boldly and unapologetically sharing my own views. And I will be happy to engage a dialogue in various forms. Comments on the blog are of course welcome and I’ll do my best to respond quickly. I’ll share posts via other social media. The specifics of this plan will evolve, and I welcome feedback. The real goal though is to use the blog as a jumping off point for all of us to have difficult but rewarding conversations in person with members of our communities. I encourage any of you to reach out to me directly to speak about these topics and to share this idea with your own networks. If you live in the Denver area, let’s get together and respectfully challenge each other face to face. If there is enough interest, we can do group discussions and bring in a wide range of perspectives.

This is my call to action. I am ringing a bell and asking you all to join in unity. Working together we can discover an incredible power to change the world that has always been lying within us. Let’s start doing it!