Watching the scary, dangerous, horribly damaging hurricane Ian devastate Florida and beyond was tragic. Many people will never be able to come back financially, and from the emotional trauma of this event. The only good thing was to see all the people who reached out to help – to see community in action.Pulling together to face a larger threat can bring people at odds with each other to let it go and work together. All of sudden, DeSantis wants to talk to Biden. Instead of wasting Florida’s money sending asylum seekers to Massachusetts, he is doing something direct for the people of Florida. Could we stop all this nonsense and work together? Turns out they could and we can.
The people of Ukraine have pulled together because of a larger threat – Russia. Putin may have started this war to distract his people from a mess they are in. It is classic that humans fight the next village over if we aren’t threatened by something larger.
In this great American experiment, I still hope that we can see each other as good and work together. Like a lot of people who grew up in the 50’s and 60’s we thought every generation would do better than their parents’ generation. That is not turning out to be so. Being a Republican or being a Democrat wasn’t a deal breaker for friendship.
Living in Spain in the ’70’s and yes Franco was still alive, I thought it was crazy that people hated people from the next town because of something someone did 8 generations ago. I was so glad I lived in the “new World”. I realize I was naive, but I am still hopeful that we can turn this awful crisis into an opportunity to rethink how we see each other and reach out to work together again.
This week, please reach out to someone you used to talk with and find a way to connect. We can recreate past community, or something better that takes into a more hopeful future.
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