Guns, Hawks, Warmongers, whore-mongers, and Yeats

I’ve been worried about the world lately, well not the whole world, just the piece of it that I claim as my own.

I've been trying to listen to the news in a new way today.

I am trying to hear past the liberals, to screen out the ultra conservatives, to somehow hear past the bias from the networks, and the venom of the hate mongers. It hasn’t been easy. All of my usual sources are disqualified, or have unwittingly recused themselves, with past rants and raves.

In desperation I turned to social media.

I found funny pictures, amusing meme’s, sarcasm, idiocy, good and valid points from the right and the left. I saw people from both sides bullied and humiliated, as I ghosted into and out of chat rooms. I read comments, and verbal blood bathes, threats and insults, humor and passion, the bitterest salts and the hottest peppers.

But I still didn't find what I was looking for.

I don’t want to phrase this personally because my family actually reads my drivel so I will just tell you a story….

Once upon a time this man married this woman. She had children and so did he. She had a significant life before him, and he had lived long before her, but they fell in love, made a commitment and married.

It wasn’t easy.

Her children didn't like him very much, and they had seen their Mother hurt before. He was proud and arrogant, bold and brash, he couldn't hear anything anyone said because he was shouting, her children grew even more frustrated because they weren't listened to. Things went from bad to worse.

But She…. His wife, was the voice of reason. She listened. She listened to him, and she listened to them. Careful, she wouldn't take a side. When one faction got out of hand and began to say things that shouldn't be said she would advise caution. When one side stopped speaking she still always invited their input. She always insisted that she was on the side of the family, and refused to alight herself whole heartedly with either the right or the left. Some nights she would cry, but even as she cried she still loved. She avoided absolutes, she embraced compromise, with calmness and deliberation she led her reluctant crew straight north. She stressed the gray and denied that anyone was black or white, or evil or perfect. Her cause was a higher one, her calling almost divine. She embraced the big picture. She recognized the squabbles and storms were just life, and that as long as everyone remembered that there would be plenty of other days, and that they would probably be better than these, than things would get better.

Like water smoothing the edges of the Grand Canyon, she watched the storms come and go.

Without her that family would have imploded, verbal nuclear options would have been explored, impossible ultimatums would have been laid down, truly hateful things would have been said and done, seeds of trust would have blown away on the wind, others would have been drawn into the disputes to take one side or another, at some point things would have just gotten so big, and out of control, that winning and losing wouldn't even have mattered anymore, the barbaric goal would have simply become destruction, and every day would have been celebrated simply because it was another day to do more damage, to do more harm.

I've been in wars like this. I've been married before, and when it was over I know how it would have ended, just a smoldering ruin where a family had once been, and scarred survivors carrying around grudges and hate.

See… what I was looking for today on the web, and in the news, and on social media, was a voice of reason, a semblance of mutual respect and understanding; someone, anyone, to just say ‘our Nation is’t red or blue, it’s red white and blue. All the colors make up the flag, and all political parties are equally important. I searched for a piece of cilantro to balance the bitter and the hot.

I didn't find it. I didn't read it. I didn't hear it.

Our politics and our Nation, are a lot like a blended family, and unfortunately, no one seems to be putting the family first. Not the Republicans, the Democrats, the far left or the far right.

So what does this mean? Does this mean that we as a nation are on our way out? Is the United, in United States gone for good?

I suppose it could be. No nation lasts forever. But if it is; I’ll be both sad to see it gone and honored to have been a part of it.

And I’ll tell you what I’m going to do tomorrow, or tonight, online, or the next time I’m asked or tempted to tell….

I’m going to look hard for a middle ground, and if the only middle ground we can find is that we both love things about the United States, well then that’s something. If enough of you do it, and it spreads, it just might save my world, and your too.

I’m going to leave you with a few lines from a poem by Yeats, and I hope the next time you discuss politics, or current events, that you encourage compromise, and that you listen as well as you speak, and you realize that these are the glues that hold us together, and that without them inevitably we will come apart.

“The falcon cannot hear the falconer;

Things fall apart; the centre cannot hold;

Mere anarchy is loosed upon the world,”

The Second Coming

William Butler Yeats

Have a great night, or morning, or day, or whatever, and as always Thanks loads for giving me a few minutes of your time. I know it’s your most valuable resource.

Until we meet again…

JS