Can We Get Back to "Us" ?

Photo from Oregon Dept. of Transportation - Diversity Conference 2016
courtesy of flickr

I have been intrigued by the YMCA advertisement: “How do we get back to us?” I don’t know a more pressing question for us that these words. This phrase implies that we’re not an “us” any more. The United States of America? Well, not exactly. 

In some ways this country has never been an us. The divisions and the differences that divide us are many and long-standing. Even from the beginning when our forebears wrote the Declaration of Independence the document was mostly for white gentrified men. Outside that document stood millions of slaves, Native Americans, women who could not vote or hold office and poor tenant farmers that could not vote if they did not own land. No us in those categories.

But through the years we have tried to make this word, United a whole lot larger than it was in 1776. Every attempt to enlarge our circle has been met with resistance. Yet—thanks to the courage of a great many—we finally abolished slavery and segregation. We have attempted to make Native Americans full citizens, opened all sorts of doors for women. We still are having a hard time trying to figure out what to do with the poor.

Who would think that in 2018 we would still be asking this burning question: How do we get back to us? The list of today’s divisions go on and on. Immigrants. The poor. The homeless. Gays. The Rich. The college educated. The Rednecks. Democrats. Republicans. Atheists. Evangelicals. Socialists. Mainline churches. Pro-Choice. Muslims. Pro-life. Red States-Blue States.  Have I left anyone out? Yep. The list goes on an on. 

We are living in a time when if you disagree with us you are the enemy. But if we are going to survive as a healthy society we have got to find ways to bridge the gap between our many differences. How do we do this? We lay down our weapons. All of us. We look across the divide at all those that don’t agree with us. Whole families, churches and communities  are ripped apart because of their varying views on politics. Kids in Parkland that hid under desks to save their lives have been called paid actors. Many of these boys and girls think that all conservatives spout these ugly untruths. Not so.

We have to remember that those who disagree with us are not the enemy. We have to listen to one another. We have to respect one another. And we have to move over and make room with those who do not see what we see. A friend had a gay sticker on his bumper. Someone came along and keyed his car from front to back. 

There is an old term that we don’t use often in our time. The common good. The phrase captured the dream where everyone could “all sit under their own vines and under their own fig trees, and no one shall make them afraId…”The words hark all the way back to the Old Testament book of Micah. 

But this cannot be accomplished unless we tone down the rhetoric today which we hear from all sides. Name calling, sneering at others, questioning the motives of the different solves nothing. We will never come closer to this good for all unless we treat everyone, including the poorest and most vulnerable with respect. 

We have almost a whole house of politicians in Washington scared to express their opinions and their beliefs. Deep in their hearts many of them know that if they expressed what they thought they would be hounded out of office. But they are really reflective of our society at large. We need to stand by all those who have the courage of their convictions. 

We need to enlarge our own particular circles until we listen and understand the viewpoints of those that disagree with us. Carlyle Marney, fine preacher once dedicated a book: “To Victor who agrees with me in nothing and is my friend in everything.” Friendship really should transcend all sorts of barriers. Some of my richest experiences have come from those very different than me.

I heard Andrew Young talking about this us-ness which he punctuated with a funny story. He told of an old farmer who was going to take his two prized roosters to enter a cock fight on the other side of the country. He carefully put his roosters in a cage in the back of his pick-up and headed for the fight. When he got there he opened up the cage and both roosters were dead. There was nothing left by blood and feathers. The farmer shook his head and moaned: “They didn’t realize they were on the same side!” 

Let’s all do our parts and if we do maybe, we can get back to us. After all we really are on the same side.

(This blog post was printed in The Greenville News (SC) and the Anderson Independent, Sunday, August 12, 2018)

--Roger Lovette / rogerlovette.blogspot.com