Finding Our Way Home…

As we all sit and wait and wait… for the final certification of votes in Nevada and Pennsylvania  Or recounts in Wisconsin and Georgia,  as well as the Trump Campaign lawsuits damn near everywhere else, it is an odd thing to witness. An old friend of mind posted an open question on Facebook earlier today, simply asking “How is everyone doing?” 

Having seen the news reports making the call.  I am confident in the outcome of the election, (meaning Joe Biden has been elected the 46h  President of the United States). But to be honest, as I look at the states that Trump won and the margins in the states he lost, I cannot help but wonder if it is even possible for this country to ever be a "United" States of America,

It's hard to imagine that there are people.... people I know and love, and who say they love me, who walked into a voting booth, looked back across the last 4 years and then said "Yeah. Sure, let's have more of that."

People who, in a very real sense  voted  to hurt their fellow Americans,  Voting to attack Immigrants,  blame the Poor,  deny health care to Women, and discriminate against Racial Minorities and LGBTQ Americans. People they know, and so many more that they do not, and clearly have shown  no desire to know or understand..  It has been painful to accept the fact, that when people say "This is not who we are!" the truth is; Yes this IS who, nearly half of us... really are.

People who voted to continue down the path that Donald Trump and his Party would take us, often cite a desire to “get back the country they knew”, As if America was a video you could just rewind. Undoing all the changes in our Nation that make them …. uncomfortable.   

Changes like the languages you hear on the Bus or in the grocery store. Changes like seeing two men, or two women walking down the street, holding hands. Changes like seeing more than just older white men holding political office. The list goes on and on.

I agree on one point. America is not same country it was when I was young, and that is a good thing. America was never meant to stand still. We are, and were  meant to always be, a work in progress.  A great experiment. 

We are  a nation that in less than two and a half centuries, reshaped the world, in ways both good and bad. But whose impact is undeniable and whose trajectory has always been, to go forward.

That journey took a very real detour these past four years. It is my hope, my fervent hope,  that we can find our way back to on to that path, that road that leads us forward.

I want us all to find our way back onto the road home.

For the United States of America, “home” is not a destination but a journey; A never ending, tumultuous process of seeking to create  a more perfect Union. Built upon E Pluribus Unum, out of many… one.

To disagree is not a weakness, to have differing visions of the particulars of our national journey is not a bad thing. The brave flawed and hopeful founders of our Republic knew this. That is why they threw over a King, to give voice to the voiceless, empowering the powerless, and seeking to elevate the downtrodden. There is a reason  Lady Liberty exhorts the huddled masses, yearning for freedom to look to our shores.

That diversity of opinion also yields innovation. Innovation that reshaped human history. It gave us the ability to always be looking ahead to what could be over the next horizon. It is why our Grandparents crossed oceans to fight fascism and oppression. It is what propelled us to Moon and beyond.

It is what moved men and women to march for civil rights, voting rights, human rights and seek to move us all to live up to those great truths, the ones we say we hold to be self-evident.

America is NOT, and must never be allowed to become,  a zero-sum gain  proposition. The greatest damage that has been done in the  last four years has been to convince 44% of us, that justice, equity and opportunity for all,  somehow meant less of  the same,  for them.

Donald Trump has made America… small. 

Let me be clear.  America NEEDS a diversity of voices.  I do not in anyway celebrate the death of the Republican Party as a platform for those who believe in personal responsibility, limited government and being champions of American exceptionalism.   

The greatest casualty of the last four years is that the Republican  Party, the party of Lincoln,  which played such a pivotal role in American history, is gone.  It has been replaced, with a twisted cult of personality that relies on white supremacist tropes, and a denial of  fact to hold on to its core base supporters. 

It is my hope, my deepest and most fervent hope, that we can once again, be greater than our differences, and stronger than our fears. Not just for our sake, but also because the world is watching,  and desperately hoping that  we, can find our way back to that road,  that  takes us all forward.

The road… home.