what we need right now

On November 5, 2024 Americans will choose the 47th President of the United States. I’m concerned about what will happen starting on November 6.

As far as I can tell, many Americans view an unfavorable outcome in the upcoming election as an existential risk. They fear that if the wrong candidate wins all will be lost.

It should go without saying that when people have this mindset they will go to great lengths to prevent such an outcome.

It is essential that we all take it upon ourselves, individually, to take a step back from the brink.

None of us is in a position to cure all of the ills that face our country (or our greater world community) on our own.

What we can do is tidy up our little corner. We can handle our duties with optimism, decency, and empathy.

Instead of death by a thousand cuts, we can have healing by a thousand bandaids.

And now these three remain: faith, hope and love. But the greatest of these is love.

1 Corinthians 13

We need faith, hope, and love. We need to believe that there is something better to aspire to, have confidence that we can get there, and love our fellow travelers along the way.

There is an extraordinary lack of empathy right now. In conversations with my fellow citizens I hear, over and over again, why the other side is totally wrong on this or that issue. Why their view is not just wrong, but actually dangerous.

I am guilty of this myself, and I aspire to be better.

We need to recognize that for each and every one of our deeply held beliefs, there is another person—another citizen with equal rights and liberties—that believes something very different.

We need to find curiosity and lose judgement. We need to put ourselves in our neighbor’s shoes and work hard to try to see the world from their perspective.

We don’t need to agree but we do need to practice “steel manning” others’ arguments. If you cannot make a credible case for an argument you do not agree with then you don’t understand the issue clearly enough.

There are well over 300 million Americans today. We hold widely divergent views on all manner of topics. That is natural and fundamental to our success and flourishing.

But we need to agree on at least this one:

We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.

We need a north star. We need a collective mission and purpose that can rise above the daily challenges and disagreements.

To coexist peacefully we need to work together in good faith, keeping this higher purpose paramount.