For school teachers and Jews, this is the time of the New Year.
May we find and use our voices to speak up for our many fellow Americans who are once again living in fear of being deported for no good reason, while millions of our citizens are being left to fend for themselves for months on end without access to clean water or electricity.
No matter how obscenely wealthy a select few may be, we can never claim greatness as long as our actions as a society become ever more callous and greedy. Conspicuous consumption declares itself impervious to our calls for decency and for justice.
****************************
It's now a few weeks since I wrote the above. Now it's October 5th. I haven't felt able to write anything substantial for the past weeks, as I have engaged fully with the drama, the tragedy of this awful confirmation process.
I think what's shaken me the most has been the way so many of us watched both Dr. Blasey and Judge Kavanaugh testify, and how a large percentage of my fellow Americans saw and heard and perceived them completely differently than did my friends and I. Think about that. Such a vivid example of how our sympathies and preconceptions can not only color, but flip upside down our perception.
Polarization in our America is painful and even sometimes frightening. Yet let us beware that the Idea of Polarization does not become a self-fulfilling prophecy. Nor an excuse we give ourselves to justify avoiding the hard work of understanding one another.
The President and the Majorities in Congress may find that driving us apart serves their personal desires, but it is you and it is me, we can recommit to our vision (in my case, as a progressive) of progress.
I'm still trying and don't claim to understand those who were encouraged by Kavanaugh's screed, those who were not moved by Christine Blasey Ford's heartfelt testimony. But without some understanding, how can we ever come together?
Let us find the fortitude to carry on in conversation, in listening, in accepting. We cannot fight our way out of being polarized. Agreeing to disagree is only a first step.
Connect, I say.
Please let me encourage you to share your views, in your own name or anonymously, here below.