Two Americas - and What America Needs
In Mill Valley, California, Fire Chief Tom Welch got his family safely on their way and then went through his neighborhood, warning others to evacuate, while his own home burned. He is not alone. Other firefighters in this terrible season of California wildfires also lost their homes, and some their lives, while doing their jobs.
Such selflessness was repeated many times as well during Hurricanes Harvey, Irma, and Maria, not only by trained first responders but by Americans from all walks of life, who sometimes risked their own safety to help others and who responded with donations of food, clothing, supplies and money.
Americans don't respond just in natural disasters. In every city and town, people and organizations donate their time to help others and enrich their communities. Ryan Traynor started collecting books when he was 11 and reading to local children. He eventually sent 25,000 books to twelve charities, eight schools, and seven literacy programs. Ariana Luterman recently picked up a collapsed competitor, Chandler Self, near the finish line of their marathon and helped her across the ribbon so she could finish - first. America is filled with people of courage and character.
This is the America we cherish. Yet, it is the America we don't hear about often enough. It is the America that doesn't ask if those it helps are liberal or conservative, live in red states or blue, share the same religion, race, gender, or sexual preference. It is the America that demonstrates its humanity and supports the dignity of others.
Sadly, there is another America. It is filled with anger, distrust, and selfishness. It fosters and consumes conspiracy theories and wants its way irrespective of who may lose their way as a result. Some of these Americans are the same ones who build their communities and help those in need. We are not perfect, and sometimes we fail to live up to Lincoln's plea to demonstrate the "better angels of our nature."
But this other America is not the one that most reflects who we are and need to be. Yet it is the one most often created, by design or inadvertence, by national media, politicians, self-interested lobbyists, and others to complain about who and what they don't like and often in pursuit of their own ends.
As I walk the streets and talk to the people of my hometown, Charlottesville, Virginia, I don't see this angry America. Given what happened here last August, it would be easy to become cynical, but that is not what people are doing. Instead, they are showing that their community is not defined by the haters who descended upon us last summer. They are doubling down on their desire to improve race relations, help feed and clothe their less fortunate neighbors, use religion as a source of caring and social progress, build stronger bonds with and within government and the police force, and raise their children to be thoughtful, respectful and respected adults.
It is easy to forget what is good in America. Negativity seems to sell much better, and the virtual world makes it so much easier to spread. There is no cable channel or national talk radio show devoted to showing all the good that is in us. But if we allow ourselves to become disheartened, to believe that America is coming apart at the seams, we bring that reality closer. People and societies live and are nurtured by the stories they tell and enact. We need better tellers of these positive stories. We need more focus on people who exemplify the character traits that define moral behavior and good societies. They set the standard we all can aspire to meet. Democracy depends on them. We need to believe that the best in us is who we are and can be.
Photo Credit: Bureau of Land Management
