The Morning After, Part II

Divide and blame is the wrong game for America.  The path of “elegant solutions” wins my vote.

My way or the
highway!

Imagine that you are the child of divorcing parents. How is taking sides going to be helpful for your growth and development? Please take a good look, if you think otherwise. You may not be right. (Or you might be right and me be wrong.)

Divisiveness is not going to help our country get on track!  

Differences of opinion? Yes!

Standing up for what you believe and what you hold to be true? Yes!

Excess reactivity? No!

Taking sides in a divorce, if you are the kid, might not work. Same deal about the “morning after” Election 2012.

We, as voters, are not to be like the children of divorced parents, divided in two, pulled between sides, or, not, at least, unless we want things that way. We’ve got to, somehow, personally, be a part of solutions, not the problems. Whatever does that mean for you?

Here’s some guidelines from my formula –

• Be clearheaded about what you can do, personally, to help us get out of the tangles we are in;
• Make careful, well thought out decisions about what you can do to help find the way to the best possible path forward, on your own and with others;
• Always do your personal best to head for the high road, no matter what you face.

I don’t recall too terribly much about the mornings after Election, 2008 when Barack Obama became the American hope for tomorrow. As I was, at the time, right in the midst of packing for an extended trip to South America, I was not particularly caught up in much of the election aftermath.  As it turned out, however, that trip brought me a great deal of clarity about where I stood as an American with Barack Obama as president.

Out of that trip was born the Possible Human, Possible Society Study because I really wanted to know how I and we, Americans, were going to support the platform of a new American dream to back up Obama’s vision.  In other words, who was going to really be walking the walk and who was, instead, going to just be a talker about the new America, hanging on the coattails of this next possible Messiah?

On landing in Ecuador, I recall being happy and hopeful that we had an African American soon to take office.  The idea seemed to bode well for America’s progress; the prospect held promise, I thought. I had my doubts, however, that this somewhat, seemingly over-confident, inexperienced  in the ways of Washington, but highly charismatic idealist, could truly carry through and deliver what he promised.  Of course, my healthy skepticism turned out to be quite right.

Obama could not deliver all that he promised, but what about us? What did we want to see of ourselves that would support Obama’s  2008 election win? What did we want to see happen? And, how much of our hoped for outcome was our own personal responsibility, not only that of our being carried to some promised land by a Messiah?

Dismayed at what seemed to be a premature Nobel prize for Obama, I sat back and watched as the walls of his Jericho (and our’s) came tumbling down.  Washington had not changed too terribly much over the years since I had first come to it. Playing the D.C. game still required a certain kind of finesse; actually artistry, if you will. And, Barack Obama was far and away, not an artiste.

But what about you, and me, and our personal responsibilities? Did we, somehow, get off the hook for the hoped for results to be gained or the lack thereof? I think not.

I hope you think not, too, and will be taking your own inventory, about things being the way they are, presently, and for our future.

Some people have worked really hard these past four year to support a new, positive American identity while some sat themselves comfortably on the fence, observing the action and letting the next guy put out the effort. Some haven’t even climbed up far enough to take a careful look at what is going on around them and how changing some of their ways might help us all.

In early 2009, after I had returned to the United States from my sojourn to South America and designed New Horizons’ Possible Human, Possible Society Study, I had the suspicion that, as a collective, we might be heading into a human foibles set-up that I labeled the “Messiah failed me/us. Let’s now crucify him” syndrome.

But here we are a handful of mornings after Election, 2012 with Barack Obama assured of his renewed lease for living at 1700 Pennsylvania Avenue, N.W., Washington, D.C. In the midst of this I am hoping you are shining some light on your own self, now, to find out what you can do to reach across that aisle of divisiveness that separates us from one another and do something different from here forth to help build our national unity, even if only with your neighbors.

And, if you are living within the one hundred mile radius of the White House and haven’t yet decided on your next right actions in the realm of “Ask not what your country can do for you, but what you can do for your country,” how about participating in our Possible Human, Possible Society Study and letting us know, at least, what you are thinking about for –

“Your vision for a healthfully functioning U.S.A.”

We will pass on some of what you tell us to help inspire others as our study has been doing, already, still in our beginning stages. (Deadline for data gathering completion, December 31, 2015.)