This might not be the lion lying down with the lamb, but it is possible for even
natural enemies to become friends.
Here in the blogosphere, we can't reach out and touch each other physically, but our lives are still touched by the people who post here. We, in turn, touch the lives of others in our day-to-day existence. Let's do something about that.
According to a
Zogby poll, a majority of us do not like Bush's performance as president. There are lots of
other polls that say basically the same thing (see chart below). Even
a FOX poll agrees.
As the majority, we need to be inclusive rather than exclusive.
* We are not all Democrats
* We are not all liberals (but need to emphasize that "librul" is not a bad word)
* We are not all pro-abortion
* We ARE of different faiths, or lack of same
* We ARE of different sexual orientations
* We ARE (for the most part) rational, caring people
Don't expect everyone to join hands and start singing "We are the World", or revive the "Up with People" musical tours. What we can do is:
* Find a common ground
* Build on common goals
* Avoid touchy subjects
* Agree to disagree
* Revel in agreement
* Compromise, compromise, compromise
Why should we do this? Maybe because like Jerome says, "We care". Maybe because like a Nobel Peace prizewinner, We have a dream.
I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character.
Martin Luther King, Jr.
Martin Luther King, Jr. was a great person, a man of peace. He was shot down and killed by a man who refused to listen to an opposing view. Listening to opposing views takes patience, understanding, and maturity. Barack Obama has written here, and urged against petty bickering:
"... the most powerful voices of change in the country, from Lincoln to King, have been those who can speak with the utmost conviction about the great issues of the day without ever belittling those who opposed them, and without denying the limits of their own perspectives."
Our president has been very successful at being a divider, not a uniter. We now seem to have a whole country that is "Us versus Them." It is a fallacy that there is an US and a THEM. We are all related. We are all living in one community, one family, in an ever shrinking planet. Darksyde's excellent diary has an interesting quote:
"Some people are just so blinded by this simplistic, almost cartoon-like, dichotomy of left versus right that they must view every single issue as "us" vs. "them". When President Bush thinks and talks that way, I laugh at it. But I also notice that many of the same people laughing with me busily engage in the same simplistic thinking themselves. We can't avoid labels entirely, of course, but we must recognize their limits."- Ed Brayton
Many days and nights, I have been close to despair over the lack of jobs, low pay, poor benefits, and ever-increasing prices. No one seems to care about the "little people" in our country anymore. No one seems to have a clear vision of how to make our country a better place for everyone, no matter their politics, or station in life. I keep thinking :
What has happened to the US? What has happened to us?
We need to be the uniters that the party of Bush has failed to become. We need to put the unity back into the United States of America! No longer should there be a them in the US, it should only be us.
"Would you tell me, please, which way I ought to go from here?"
"That depends a good deal on where you want to get to," said the Cat.
Lewis Carrol
(
Update - chart added 1/24/06)