Family matters

These last few years America has been engulfed in a deep darkness, repeatedly tripping and falling as we try to find our way out. We have ended up a bruised and broken nation in desperate need of light, love, and guidance.

He did start the fire
How did we get here? As I started going through everything we’ve been through, it started to read like a really bad version of the Billy Joel classic.

Muslim nation travel ban/DACA, NAFTA, climate agreement gone/families separated and children caged/dictators extolled, media “enemy of the people” made/disagreeing senior leaders fired/others bullied and forced to retire/racists, sexual predators and colluders pardoned/while war vets and captured heroes scorned/Black lives emasculated/photo ops with teargas created/global pandemic ignored/ 400,000 lives being mourned/tyranny in the Capitol and democracy indelibly stained/as a twice-impeached President made America great again.

The difference between Billy’s account and mine (other than terrible rhyming), is that in this case one man lit the match and then stepped back and watched the nation burn. And nothing, not even character assassinations by his own niece, a veteran journalist who brought down the Nixon presidency, a former colleague, as well as a former mistress, could temper the fire. Adding insult to injury, the very groups he vilified — Blacks, Hispanics, Asian Americans, and women — turned up and voted in historic numbers for him.

What we have learned from this is that 2016 was not a fluke as we had hoped and prayed, and Hilary was not the failure. To many Americans patriotism is synonymous with xenophobia, racism, and violence — ideals that have found a champion in chief in the White House.

The way out

We have our work cut out for us if we want to emerge from this darkness and begin to recover, rebuild, and heal.

We don’t really have a choice. Because we can’t go on like this— a house divided. Like many families, we have had a falling out, and we have said and done unimaginable things. It’s time now to find our way back to each other. It will be the hardest thing we’ve ever had to do. We will want to give up and blame each other, because that’s easier than the work ahead. But we will hang on, and we will painstakingly peel away the pride, pain, and heartbreak layer by layer. And underneath it we will re-discover what binds us one family— our humanity, deep love and respect for one another, and our inalienable right to make a better life for ourselves.

I know we will find a way out and forward. Because that’s what families do when it matters the most. And America, you matter.