A Family Thing<\/p>\n\n\n\n
We had a family reunion, twenty-six of us. It was my sister and brother-in-laws birthday (seventy!!) and we all travelled to Cleveland to celebrate. We had a blast, lots of food, lots of drink, lots of laughing and high spirits. It was one of those celebrations that will require a week to recover.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Relatives came; from Ohio, from New Jersey, from Colorado and Arizona. It wasn\u2019t a funeral or a wedding; we could have fun without a significant \u201cevent\u201d beyond the celebration itself. And like any family in our current political era, we brought widely divergent political viewpoints to the occasion. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Our family trends from extreme \u201cResistors\u201d to Libertarians to died in the wool conservatives, and while we don\u2019t necessarily have any true \u201cMAGA Hat Trumpers\u201d we still are aware of everyone\u2019s difference. For most of the weekend, our political talk remained \u201camong ourselves\u201d: the \u201cResistance\u201d wing debated the latest Congressional moves and sorted through the candidates for 2020; then quickly altered the subject when the \u201cnon-resistors\u201d came within earshot. Since that was my end of the family political spectrum, I\u2019m not sure what the \u201cother\u201d side did; but I expect they had a few of the same kind of conclaves. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
But later on during the two evenings of the weekend, when great food, craft beer and Irish whiskey helped breakdown barriers, we gingerly \u201ccrossed the line.\u201d Gently, across a border established by the round banquet table, two sides began to communicate. Surprisingly, it didn\u2019t erupt in angry words and recriminations: \u201chow could you support;\u201d \u201cdo you regret choosing not to chose in 2016.\u201d We found areas of agreement. Both sides allowed that the true evil of our current political system is money; if the process of needing millions of dollars to run for office doesn\u2019t change, than corrupting influences, on all sides of the spectrum, will continue. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
But despite our tentative areas of agreement, the haunting prediction of \u201ccivil war\u201d was also spoken. How can our nation, so divided and so fragmented into pockets of different \u201cfacts\u201d and seemingly different values, ever recover? In a nation with a choice of either silence or argument, with no alternative of calm conversation; how will we ever return to a time when we can all agree on what America is?<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Into the night it was more conversation, this time about climate change. It became an issue of \u201cI don’t believe your facts, I have my own.\u201d It took a while to get past AOC and the Green New Deal and cattle farts and cheeseburgers; to more serious consideration of how we produce our energy, and why we can\u2019t lead the world in finding new sources of energy. But at the end of that conversation, to one it came down to a deep distrust of government; anything that the \u201cgovernment\u201d is for, then it must be opposed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
But in the small hours of the morning, two older men, friends for fifty years, reached for understanding. We talked about our families, about the uniting force of love that crossed political and ideological lines. We talked about the ability of smaller governments, of towns and counties, to focus on the practical problems of their communities, and let go the partisanship of our national discourse. On the macro scale there seemed to be little hope of change, but on the micro scale; family, neighborhood, towns; there is still the ability to unite to solve problems and to love each other. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
We are an extended family; extended in age, geography, and political beliefs. We were able to celebrate the birthday of our siblings, parents, grandparents and cousins together. There was no screaming (other that the two year olds) and there was no disgust. And there probably were no minds changed either. But in fact we were able to discuss our differences and be Americans in celebration together across partisan divides: it was because of love.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
That\u2019s where Americans will need to start. We aren\u2019t ready to put down our partisan sword and shield; we aren\u2019t ready to listen to each other on a national scale. But we can start to tentatively reach out to those closest to us; our family, our neighborhoods, our towns. That\u2019s where we can begin to piece our nation back together again \u2013 one little group at a time. And as my old friend said, with can use love to transcend our differences.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"