A malaise has enveloped our country since the Orlando mass shooting.
We are citizens of the distressed. We are parents horrified by the frantic text messages of a son to his mother before he was killed, cornered in a bathroom stall by evil with nowhere to run. Yes, we are neighbors who reached out to friends to make sure they were safe. Yes, we are givers, donating blood to the hemorrhaging and money to the grieving. At first glance, it would seem as though we have become unified amidst the darkness of hatred and violence.
But, I’m not so sure.
The vitriol of anger and disgust is spewed not only toward the heinous actions of a murderer, but also toward one another.
For each social media outlet colored with rainbow-hued profile photos of support for the victims, there are tenfold accusations of ignorance espoused online. For every media interviewer pronouncing a rise for unity in our country, an on-air caller cries foul to the perceived approach of the meek and naïve. We rush to condemn the other side of the argument without pausing to understand the origin of our debate.
And what exactly is the heart of the debate? Is it gun control? Second amendment rights? Targeted immigration policy? The courage — or cowardice, depending on your view – to include “radical Islamism” in our collective vernacular?
Spend a minute on Facebook, Twitter or Google to get a sense of the heated divide among ourselves on how to stop the violence that has permeated our nation. Several friends have told me they’ve disconnected their social media feeds this week.
“I just don’t have the stomach for the hatred,” one friend lamented. “What good does it do?”
A valid question. I don’t know. I believe there is a great deal of irrevocable harm that comes from the relentless rhetorical posturing that your side is right and my side is wrong. This either/or mindset doesn’t seem to be working out too well, does it? And as we dive into the deep end of the presidential election, the verbal pummeling, coupled with the atrocities of violence in Central Florida, is like gasoline on fire for a country already simmering.
Maybe the best place to find common ground is to know what we know about violent crime in America. But, not so fast. Raised eyebrows immediately question the validity of statistics cited to defend one’s “stance,” sometimes formerly known as facts. So this is what we’ve come to: parsing a data point on homicide comparisons between the United States and other developed nations.
We’ve heard the saying that when we’re divided, evil wins. But listen: The nefarious aren’t interested in the nuance of the intellectually or politically divided, their end-game is more straightforward. They want us gone. I get that the very beauty of our country is based on the historical cornerstone of having options. We have rights. We have privileges that many in this world do not.
I’ve always considered myself an optimistic patriot, but now that I’ve used the word “patriot” in my sentence, I’ve invited a political interpretation. America may have been built on independence, but it feels like we are now constructed by labels. Characterizations keep us from listening to one another, from finding consensus to preserve and protect that which we hold sacred.
So perhaps this is where we should come together: taking small steps with dialogue to find universal truths about what we can do to preserve the tenets of being an American.
There are those who would offer this is the juncture when healing can take place. But, I believe we need to first hear one another before we can heal.
