This entry is crossposted at
Trueblueliberal
We used to be a nation of neighborhoods. Weekends were spent talking to our neighbors about the weather or current events. Weekdays were a friendly wave as you headed out to work, or loaded the kids into the car for school.
It used to be that people in a neighborhood knew one another. They weren't strangers forced into proximity; they were a community. Their children went to school together, they knew their neighbors names. They knew which neighbors were doctors, or electricians, or stay at home moms and dads. Now, in the political times of George Bush, we know our neighbors by their political stripes first and maybe their names second.
We are communities divided.
We are divided by partisan ideologies on the war, the economy, the environment, social security; the list is endless. Nearly half a year after the election and the bitter divide over the direction this country is taking can be felt from the highest levels of government, to the state, to the city, to the district, and into the neighborhoods. We do not forget those neighbors who had Bush signs up. We particularly recall those who only raised them up after Kerry conceded the election victory. We still see the weathered remains of the Kerry supporter's signs', visible proof that the outcome of the election has not changed their stance. It was an election that many people felt did not yield a clear-cut winner, again. Today, cars still sport their Bush or Kerry stickers; a daily reminder not of success or failure but of strife amongst neighbors. When I look at a small neighborhood and see that political differences have transformed a ten-foot stretch of grass between neighbors into a yawning chasm it makes me very concerned. There is a rift within America's communities and it is growing.
The economics of this administration have furthered this divide. People have to work harder to make that house payment each month and to put food on the table for their families each day. The disconnect between the harsh reality facing most Americans and the reality perceived by the President standing on the outside looking in was never more apparent than when he traveled across the country, stumping for social security privatization. At one such event a woman in the audience asked him a question. During that brief conversation he learned that that woman was divorced and worked three jobs to support herself and her mentally handicapped son. The President praised her; saying that was "fantastic" and "uniquely American" then jokingly asked if she got much sleep. She doesn't. In fact, most Americans sacrifice sleep these days just to scrape by. The struggle to survive brought about by the policies of George Bush leaves little time for engaging in the social niceties of our society; even "hello" is an achievement for some people. In the past, our neighbors were a part of our lives; now they are simply the people around our lives. Like the President, each of us stands on the outside looking in and as a result we are all disconnected from each other. Rather than coming together and embracing the similar struggles that we face we have become isolated. In fact, we have become so insular that the communities that Americans once took pride in are slowly crumbling under the strain.
Partisan politicians chose to divide our country. They did this with a few buzzwords: abortion, gay marriage, and gun control. As Americans, we let them. Now, we must begin to bridge the gap that their divisive actions created. We must work at the local level and reclaim our neighborhoods, one 'hello' at a time.