The Register Citizen (Torrington, CT)
An America that is fenced off from itself
Two weeks ago, while visiting family in Washington, D.C., I engaged as a tourist, visiting some old haunts for the first time in years. The downtown streets were essentially empty compared to decades ago. I visited the National Gallery of Art on the Mall, and in some of the galleries I was the only visitor viewing some American masterpieces. Leaving the gallery, I ventured down Constitution Avenue toward Capitol Hill, the American Acropolis. The U.S. Senate was in session, the U.S. House not. Looking upward from the base of the Hill, I observed a fence around the Capitol, with police in position. Atop the Hill and across First Street, the U.S. Supreme Court was likewise surrounded by a fence. Police patrolled the neighborhood.
Years ago people could enter both the court and the Capitol with minimal interruption. Tourists were welcomed, indeed encouraged to visit the hallowed halls of government. There would be lines of students waiting to enter with their teachers. Sometimes congressional aides would conduct the tours. I can remember members of the Connecticut delegations, as well as Senate luminaries from around the country, from both parties, strolling the grounds. Members of Congress could be seen speaking to one another rather than scowling.
The fences bring to mind happier occasions when I was teaching school in Ukraine 17 years ago. Our group members were known to the people in western Ukraine as “our Americans.” Most of the people with whom we interacted for two years had not previously met anyone from the states. Our students would ask us: “What is it like in America? Tell us about it. You have all these rights.” What they thought they knew about America stemmed from what little they had been taught by their native teachers and from the type of newspapers one encounters at the grocery store checkout counter. When we were preparing to return home, some of our students approached us individually or jointly asking: “Will you bring me/us with you to America?” It wasn’t so much us personally, but rather what we represented, the United States of America.
Seventeen years later, we still remember the earnestness of our young students in their facial expressions; the seventh-graders spoke with their eyes! These young students, now in their 30s, had had no experience with Americans being their enemy since they were just being born, or in elementary school as the Soviet Union was dissolving and Ukraine was gaining its independence. Indeed, they recognize that the United States historically has stood for democratic processes; they look to us for political and moral leadership.
But when Ukrainians look at international media today, specifically to our capital, they see two of the three pillars of our system fenced in. I surmise that our stature has diminished in their eyes. Our Supreme Court justices now require increased personal protection, especially as their homes are picketed. Violence directed against our Congress, both the building and some of its occupants; sloganeering often substituting for reasoned discussion; vilification visited upon those of a different political persuasion; assertion of “rights” without consideration, let alone mention, of responsibility. Is the dysfunction in society due to a lack of a common ground or because of a refusal to seek common ground? When does an individual’s preference become a right? As for masks and vaccinations, when does one’s claimed right to bodily independence not conflict with the right of others to live/be healthy?
The renewal of the abortion controversy will remain throughout this election year, further stoking emotional demonstrations and critiques of the Supreme Court. Here is a question for reporters to ask of candidates for federal office in the midterm election: It is generally assumed that many activists in the Democratic Party are opposed to the death penalty, and in favor of loosening abortion restrictions. It is also generally assumed that many activists in the Republican Party are in favor of the death penalty and opposed to abortion rights. So, the question is: “Why do you support one form of life but oppose the other?”
It’s not only citizens who have a responsibility to make our system work; the media also has a role to play. Consider recent headlines in print or digital format dealing with political or legislative matters: “slammed, lambasted, rebuffed, blasted, condemned, fires back, fights.” Let’s tone it down.
Is the best jargon that can be produced to differentiate among states and regions “blue versus red states”? What do those words mean and why? How many “talking heads” on television who predict electoral outcomes have themselves ever run for office? Sound bites are not a substitute for thinking.
We have the opportunity to improve our country, for ourselves and for those citizens of the world, like Ukrainian students, who still look to us for example. America’s greatness does not depend on the number of commas in our checkbook, but rather upon the strength of our character.
Is the dysfunction in society due to a lack of a common ground or because of a refusal to seek common ground?