Recently stated was that I don\u2019t believe \u201c\u2018this thing we keep calling 2020\u2019 has inserted all sorts of newness and new perspective into our lives. Rather, I believe it\u2019s revealed \u2014 more like \u2018ripped the Band-Aid off\u2019 \u2014 of what was already there.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
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\u2019s acceptable, debatable, or even allowed to be uttered and discussed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
This past week I\u2019ve read two fantastic pieces that seem to have uncovered more of this wound.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
First, from Tim Alberta, the chief political correspondent for Politico Magazine\u2026<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n 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 \u2014 and those who are not. He wanted us to hear the voices of others, the voices of our \u201cfellow citizens far removed from stations of influence and power, who actually hold in their hands the fate of this democratic experiment.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cFrom 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,\u201d Alberta aimed to help us \u201cknow what was on their minds and in their hearts.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Alberta\u2019s unscientific study is fascinating. In his final piece entitled \u201cLetter to Washington: 20 Americans Who Explain the 2020 Election,\u201d he shares from some most articulate individuals\u2026 persons of varied age, ethnicity, faith, gender, preference, etc\u2026 persons who voted for Biden and who voted for Trump\u2026 persons who were enthusiastic about their vote, \u201cheld their nose\u201d during their vote, or were disappointed in the choice for whom to vote. This, my friends, is diversity.<\/p>\n\n\n\n In that cross-section, Alberta came to a final conclusion \u2014 and potentially the reason a wound can hurt so much\u2026<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cI 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.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n How profound that what Alberta asserts we may most have in common is our fear. <\/p>\n\n\n\n The second piece was an interview by the British Internet magazine Spiked<\/em> of Chris Arnade, a liberal American photographer and the author of Dignity: Seeking Respect in Back Row America, <\/em>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\u2026 <\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cThe gap is not about how you vote \u2013 it is about how you think about the world. The elites \u2013 what I call the front row \u2013 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.<\/p>\n\n\n\n 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\u2026\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n 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?<\/p>\n\n\n\n Notes Alberta in regard to those he met: \u201cThey 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\u2014and maybe, just maybe, understand each other.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Ah, a depth of perspective\u2026 a way to understand each other\u2026 Maybe there\u2019s a way to put the Band-Aid back on\u2026<\/p>\n\n\n\n Respectfully\u2026<\/p>\n\n\n\n AR Recently stated was that I don\u2019t believe \u201c\u2018this thing we keep calling 2020\u2019 has inserted all sorts of newness and new perspective into our lives. Rather, I believe it\u2019s revealed \u2014 more like \u2018ripped the Band-Aid off\u2019 \u2014 of what was already there.\u201d Perhaps our most significant gaping wound in which the bandage has been … <\/p>\n
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