Our darkest moments often bring us back
We all must look in mirror after the mob attack in D.C.
Wednesday we witnessed a breathtaking failure of the American social contract that demonstrated how tattered and weak we have allowed the social fabric of our beloved country to become. The moment the security barriers were breached, any claims to legitimate protest, freedom of speech or patriotism vanished. But what we also witnessed was the perhaps inevitable outcome of the long-nurtured deterioration of our belief in one another as fellow Americans and of our faith in both ourselves and in our sacred institutions of democracy to serve all of us.
If we want to really try to learn anything from this moment and genuinely want to work toward rebuilding our society, wemust be willing to think differently and take different actions than we have up to this point. And we must start by taking time to seriously consider what part each of us may have played in getting to this point. It is easy to believe that this was caused completely be the actions and failures of others, but wemust be brutally honest with ourselves. Wemust ask if we have contributed by allowing our politicians and some in our media to continually turn our legitimate differences into social and cultural warfare with our side being right and noble and the other side being wrong and evil.
Have we been contributing to the breakdown of our social fabric by seeking out only information that confirms our biases and stokes our belief that our neighbors are somehow un-American because they have different views from ours? Have we contributed by sharing biased, false and demeaning messages directly and through social media? Have we contributed by stereotyping others, even though we know nothing about them as individuals and human beings?
There is absolutely a need to immediately address the direct responsibilities of many, and most particularly President Donald Trump and his closest allies, who incited this imminently predictable incident. It’s clear that their actions were intentional and seditious, and theymust be held accountable. But we cannot stop there.
Wemust also identify as many of the individuals who participated in illegal acts of breaking and entering, assault, vandalism and terrorism and hold them directly accountable for these crimes. We must also attempt to understand that many of those who participated in these unjustifiable acts have been manipulated and lied to for years and ultimately were incited to being swept up into the mob mentality and actions of Wednesday. Again, this does not and should not absolve them, but we must be willing to consider that these actions do not define every person who went to Washington on Wednesday and certainly not all conservatives, Republicans or others who have been manipulated into believing that somehow our elections were not free, fair and secure.
Because if we make that jump, we virtually eliminate any possibility of working together to rebuild trust and respect for one another and to attempt to heal our civil society. Wemust avoid the temptation to define all of these individuals solely by the traitorous actions of some. If we cannot allow ourselves, all of us, to acknowledge when we have made bad choices and to learn from these instances, we eliminate possibilities for learning, growth and ultimately any chance for reconciliation.
It has often been our darkest moments that have brought us back to the recognition that we are all Americans, reminding us of what we value and aspire to as a nation. These moments remind us that this democracy that our forebearers endowed us with is precious and powerful yet fragile. And it reminds us that it is this democracy and each of us as citizens, not our leaders, who have made America succeed, as long as we protect and sustain it together.