Recently stated was that I don’t believe “‘this thing we keep calling 2020’ has inserted all sorts of newness and new perspective into our lives. Rather, I believe it’s revealed — more like ‘ripped the Band-Aid off’ — of what was already there.”
Perhaps our most significant gaping wound in which the bandage has been ripped off is our lack of allowance for another to be where they are. Many feel increasingly, gratuitously empowered to be the one who declares what’s acceptable, debatable, or even allowed to be uttered and discussed.
This past week I’ve read two fantastic pieces that seem to have uncovered more of this wound.
First, from Tim Alberta, the chief political correspondent for Politico Magazine…
Alberta began writing a poignant, year long series last January, attempting to connect ordinary Americans to one another, helping us see those who are alike — and those who are not. He wanted us to hear the voices of others, the voices of our “fellow citizens far removed from stations of influence and power, who actually hold in their hands the fate of this democratic experiment.”
“From the mountains of northeastern Pennsylvania to the desert wilderness of New Mexico, while sitting in the backseats of Uber vehicles and standing outside of voting precincts and touring shuttered restaurants,” Alberta aimed to help us “know what was on their minds and in their hearts.”
Alberta’s unscientific study is fascinating. In his final piece entitled “Letter to Washington: 20 Americans Who Explain the 2020 Election,” he shares from some most articulate individuals… persons of varied age, ethnicity, faith, gender, preference, etc… persons who voted for Biden and who voted for Trump… persons who were enthusiastic about their vote, “held their nose” during their vote, or were disappointed in the choice for whom to vote. This, my friends, is diversity.
In that cross-section, Alberta came to a final conclusion — and potentially the reason a wound can hurt so much…
“I detected one common feeling that binds together this deeply fractured nation: fear. Fear of violence. Fear for their livelihoods. Fear of far-left socialism or far-right authoritarianism. Fear that our best days are behind us. Fear that America is no longer capable of conquering its great challenges. Above all, fear that we are too alienated, too angry with each other, too fundamentally misunderstood by the other half of society to ever truly heal.”
How profound that what Alberta asserts we may most have in common is our fear.
The second piece was an interview by the British Internet magazine Spiked of Chris Arnade, a liberal American photographer and the author of Dignity: Seeking Respect in Back Row America, in which he shares his experience, traveling across the country, speaking to people in poor and working-class communities. Arnade talks about the gap between us…
“The gap is not about how you vote – it is about how you think about the world. The elites – what I call the front row – are not really defined by class, although there is overlap. They are more defined by education and a very materialistic worldview: they generally see themselves as mobile, global, secular and morally right. And they view the back row as being lesser, stuck in provincial and outdated views about the world and themselves.
The front row is detached and completely clueless about the people it rules. Its members run the political system and business and define our cultural and economic capital. Therefore, they have an obligation to understand the people they lord over…”
Both reads are both poignant and profound. Both show the divide and the common. Each also shows where the bandage is ripped off. But what if we could stop the bleeding?
Notes Alberta in regard to those he met: “They are not a statistically perfect sample of the electorate. They will not check every box or speak to every possible viewpoint of the roughly 160 million Americans who voted this year. What they will do, both individually and collectively, is provide a depth of perspective that cannot be captured in infographic maps or exit polls or social media posts. With half of this country bewildered by the motivations and rationales of the other half, these 20 citizens can help us understand this moment in America—and maybe, just maybe, understand each other.”
Ah, a depth of perspective… a way to understand each other… Maybe there’s a way to put the Band-Aid back on…
Respectfully…
AR