Meet Division With Imagination: Joint Inauguration and Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Day

 

I think it’s fairly rare that Inauguration Day and the Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. holiday fall on the same day.

Some folks are elated by the Inauguration and the changes on the horizon. Other folks are depressed and despairing. What I’ve come to know over the last year of being in independent space, is that peoples’ views are much more complex than the standard divisions of right/left, Democrat/Republican and so on. Many people were frustrated with the Presidential choices we had and either tried to run themselves (RFK,Jr) or to get on the ballot with a unity ticket (No Labels). And even within the people at No Labels, there was a wide diversity of policy views. Outside No Labels, there were Bernie-ites, who turned to RFK-ites, who ultimately voted for Trump.

Many pundits called this “a turn to the right.” I don’t actually think so. I think numerous Ds and independents felt that their relationship with the DNC was like an abusive personal relationship. There was gaslighting,e.g. “you’re crazy, Biden is sharp as a tack!”, and court cases to keep RFK, Jr. and No Labels off the ballot. It reminded me of churches a bit “pray, pay and obey” without the praying part. Politicians probably believe they are right; and also, of more concern, that the end (staying in power) justifies the means (whatever low-down approaches they can think of).

As our 19th century pundit friends said:

Under democracy one party always devotes its chief energies to trying to prove that the other party is unfit to rule—and both commonly succeed, and are right

H. L. Mencken,

and Mark Twain

Politicians and diapers must be changed often, and for the same reason.

Rather than by politicians, who do what they do, I think that we were let down by many media outlets, who chose to become lapdogs rather than watchdogs. But in the end, that was OK, because we got in the habit of hearing directly from the source and thinking for ourselves.

Dr. King was a fan of peace. One quote that might be appropriate for us here at this time is:

Here is the true meaning and value of compassion and nonviolence, when it helps us to see the enemy’s point of view, to hear his questions, to know his assessment of ourselves. For from his view we may indeed see the basic weaknesses of our own condition, and if we are mature, we may learn and grow and profit from the wisdom of the brothers who are called the opposition.

What I learned from last year was that we (across any political spectrum) disagree about many policy issues than forests, federal lands and climate change. But if have a deeper conversation, you find out that their views most often don’t match a specific party.  The Trump Admin is a coalition of unique individuals who have different ideas about many things. So maybe it’s time for us to band together in a spirit of cooperation to try to understand their views. In some sense, we already do that here.

I am intentionally going to try to assume the best of intentions of the new Admin.  I’m going to try to get their side of the story.  This is based on the idea of judging others favorably.

We are not only to judge favorably, but to believe in the explanations that we devise as well. What you may consider to be an absurd justification may turn out to be the truth!

Rabbi Zvi Feldman (1907-1976)

In the book Every Day, Holy Day by Alan Morinis, the chapter is on judging others favorably, and the daily phrase is “there’s another side to the story.” Many times I have contacted the Forest Service or other organizations to hear their side of the story, and that is the best way (straight from the horse’s mouth). But I have no “ins” with anyone in the new Admin, so I guess I will have to use my imagination and whatever the media folks come up with, and whatever context TSW-ites can lend, and try to reverse engineer their side of the story. As an independent, I am skeptical of all Admins, but I think we should be open-minded about them and the changes they want to make. So it may sound as if I am “on their side”, but that’s just me trying to figure them out and trying to judge their intentions favorably.

What we are about together is first the truth of what’s going on. Often, if enough of us pool our knowledge, we can figure it out. Then based on our knowledge, experience and values, we can disagree, and sometimes find agreement among those who usually don’t. Some of us may be able to influence policy, but many of us don’t have those connections. So this is the best we can offer, truth and understanding of each other, and attempting to decrease the net hate in this country.

Here’s what Jennifer Pahlka wrote on her Substack today:

Cancer has been my metaphor before. The unchecked growth of policy, process, and procedure that compounds over time and strangles our government’s ability to act in the public interest is much like a cancer. When I wrote that, I believed my cancer would be excised with surgery and that would be it. Now chemo is my metaphor. It seems we may go through some scary and even dangerous changes. But I believe there is something better on the other side of this for our country, too.

Here’s more of what I wrote eight years ago:

Most importantly, remember, the status quo isn’t worth protecting. It’s so easy to be in reaction, on the defensive, fighting for the world we had yesterday. Fight for something better, something we haven’t seen yet, something you have to invent. Find a thousand collaborators. Include people you disagree with. Meet division with imagination.

I’m with Jennifer on that.

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