American Family
Does anyone remember what happened a couple years ago? Of course, everyone who reads this will initially say “yes.” But I’m not referring to the terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon on September 11, 2001. I’m talking about what happened after, when in the wake of national tragedy and heartache, we pulled together and somehow showed that adversity would not break us, but make us stronger; that we would not turn into a paranoid citizenry, but rather, come closer together, supporting each other when the need was most desperate.
Nobody had an unkind political comment to share on the news networks. We were in one big, awe-inspiring, fear-smothering, unifying group hug. It was strange to see the idea proven right, that adversity can make us better people. And for a while it appeared that the difficulty of regrouping from a national tragedy had not only made us better individual people, but it had also made us a better people, collectively. But, as usually happens, as distance separated us from tragedy, most people seemed to lose that newfound sense of American “family.”
And as more individuals reverted to pre-9/11, every-man-for-himself mode, the collective citizenry also regressed toward its less admirable, previous state.
We lost that “loving feeling,” so to speak. Political rivals took their familiar places, slinging criticism on the news shows, even as many feared to take opposition stances, for fear of a nationalistic backlash. And pretty soon the TV talk show comics were back to their cheap jokes about the President. Protesters were called traitors, even though many who protested had bravely served their country in the past. War supporters were labeled greedy oil vultures, if not simply cowards, afraid to stand against the “evil” war plans. I’ve had many a conversation with each side of the debate, on which I admittedly seem to be straddling the fence (but only because I don’t adopt a pre-selected belief template). I’ve heard the protesters who obviously don’t understand why they’re protesting; and I’ve heard the war supporters who are only agreeing because they don’t want to make up their own minds. But it’s clear to me, despite these lockstep protesters and supporters, that there are many people on each side who have passionate, well thought out beliefs for or against the actions taken by our government. And few, if any, of these people can correctly be labeled as traitors or greedy vultures.
We need to modify the discussion a little. Whether it’s Donald Rumsfeld and John Ashcroft, or Michael Moore and Al Franken, or any one else spouting divisive rhetoric about those with whom they disagree—there needs to be a higher premium placed on civil discourse. And since I’m not betting on any of the people named above reading, much less following, this advice, I’ll settle for the kind readers of this essay giving the idea some consideration.
Thanks for reading.
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