Common Ground
Common Ground-a letter to the moon
Hello Luna, my dear friend. How are you? It's been eons since we've talked. How have you been? How's Sally? Please give her my regards.
Please forgive the lateness of my letter, Luna. It's been hard to write lately. Everything has been disjointed, fractured. All of my recent attempts at writing haven't come to fruition. As I feel that the world is disjointed, that is how my writing efforts have been. In fact, that's how many of us are feeling right now.
This year has been especially hard, on everyone here on Earth. I know you can't tell it from where you are, but there is a highly infectious disease circulating in our air that has changed millions of lives forever. During March and April of this year, much of the country was ordered to shelter in place, to prevent the spread of the disease. Since reopening in May, cases of the virus have surged. Globally there have been over 27 million cases, and over 815,000 deaths around the world. America has had 6 million cases, and close to 200,000 deaths. At one point there were around 40 million people out of work. We're a traumatized people, Luna.
While in lock-down an event happened in the United States that further traumatized the nation, and shook the country to its core: the killing of George Floyd, an unarmed black man, at the hands of a white police officer. The incident was caught on camera, and replayed on the nightly news for over a month.
Floyd's murder was the spark that lit the fire of righteous rage anger in this country. Black Lives Matter protests happened in every major U.S. city, as well as cities around the world. Since then there have been more killings and shootings at the hands of police, as well as those enacting vigilante justice.
The killing of George Floyd has been an awakening for white people in this country. Their hearts and minds have been opened to a new reality that existed in this country since its inception. Their ears finally heard the screams of injustice and racial trauma, that has built into a mighty crescendo for over 400 years.
The United States is now wide awake, and I pray it never sleeps. Too much is at stake for us. In November we will have another Presidential election. After the 2016 election, I knew that things would be bad; however I failed to see that the country would be on the brink of a racial war, stoked by incendiary comments of our current leader in the White House. Too much is at stake for anyone to fall asleep. The US is awake. I pray we stay awake and that we finally begin to create social change in this country.
The country is so divided; it is hard to find common ground. I once made the mistake of thinking that someone who looked like me felt the same way I did. However, I learned very quickly that that person and I did not have the same point of view, and would never do so. I learned my lesson, to never assume anything about anyone.
There are people that believe the most preposterous things Luna. Some people believe the world is flat. Some believe that aliens built the pyramids. There are those who believe that wearing a face mask in a pandemic violates their civil liberties. There are people who believe they are actually superior to others, based on skin color, religion, sexual orientation, gender identity, or whatever other nonsensical dogma.
We have less than 50 days until our next election Luna. I worry about the election. I worry about the outcome. I worry that everyone has equal access to vote. I worry about practices already in place that are working to sabotage the election.
I also worry about the hate that has been normalized in this country. A dogma of hatred and racial purity has been emboldened by the current "President." Hate does not exist in a vacuum. How do we close Pandora's Box once that hatred has been unleashed upon the world?
I don't know what will happen in the days and months to come, for the rest of the year. Yet, I am hopeful for the future. As I know things can get worse, I too know they can get better. We needed this wake up call as a people and as a nation.
Maybe now we can finally live up to the ideals of our nation. We can achieve equality. We can instill equity. We can work to create a level playing field for all of our citizens. We can address the centuries of oppression and terrorism on our own people. We can atone for our country's original sin. We can truly make America the land of the free and the home of the brave.
It won't happen by wishing and hoping. It can only happen with action, with a commitment to making serious change.
Yet, how do we do that with such division in this nation? How do we move forward as a country, as a people? We have to find common ground.
How do we find common ground in this time? If we all have different beliefs, how can we agree come together on anything? One way is to create a set of tenets of beliefs, core beliefs we can all agree upon. Here are some things I believe in:
*investing in our communities so police departments can concentrate on protecting our citizens (also known as "defunding the police")
*investing in the education of our citizens instead of investing in for profit prisons
*paying reparations for the wrongs we have done to our citizens
*paying a living wage for all citizens
*providing secure housing for all citizens
*providing greater access to food, free in-home WiFi and other resources for every household in America
*protecting the rights of all to vote, including those formerly incarcerated
*every American should be safe from harm, regardless of the color of their skin
*eradicating oppression, in all of its forms
I could go on listing points that I feel should be tenets of our newly found common ground. It's not going to happen by wishing and hoping, it can only happen through action. We are one people and we need to work together to save our nation. I'm reminded of a quote by the late Martin Luther King Jr.:
"We must live together as brothers or perish together as fools."
The American experiment is still a work in progress. I pray that someone new is appointed to the Presidency and that we can finally begin to work together to build "a more perfect union", as the Preamble to our Constitution espouses. I pray we treat one another as fellow citizens, working together to achieve a common goal. We're in this together, and it's up to us to save it.
What's the first step? Our upcoming election. Nothing will happen without the vote. Then we can begin to bring about a better country for every American.
Don't give up on me Luna. I'm here, every day, watching the news, watching the madness unfold before my eyes. There's so much to say, and I don't even know where to begin. But I will find the words; I will find my way out of this disjointed state of being. We all will. It will just take time.
We're a traumatized people, Luna. Pray for us. Pray for healing. Pray for action. Pray for justice. Pray we can save ourselves. Pray we do not perish as fools. Pray we find common ground.
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