Coronavirus19 Diary - Unity

I think back on election night 2016, watching with horror and dismay as the results came in and it became apparent that, because of the antiquated Electoral College, a person totally unfit for the position  was to become the President of the United States. I, like a number of others, consoled myself with the belief that the law of the land and our well realized system of checks and balances would keep him from doing too much harm. We have come to discover that he, and an entire political party, have no respect for either. 

This past week I watched with hope and cautious optimism as the Democrats held their virtual convention. The message of unity and inclusion helped heal a small part of the emotional wound within me. We, as a country, are tired, masked, unmasked, confused and confounded. Many are financially devastated. Our systems are broken, our economy shattered. We are divided by fear, distrust and hate. Our problems are many, the solutions coming from our present leader misguided and few. 

On the final night of the convention the man asking for our vote spoke of working together to move us to a brighter future. We are in a dark time, but, we have experienced dark times before and have always  emerged from them. We have fought civil and cultural wars and survived intact. 

Some rail about socialism and the imagined evils associated with it, refusing to acknowledge that police, fire departments, national infrastructure and public schools are paid for, yet not equally used, by all. Socialism is sharing. If you have more than you need you reach out and help someone who does not. The union creates strength, a bond. It is the moral, or if you like, Christian, thing to do. Will there be a financial benefit to those who give? Probably not. Will there be an emotional one? I would hope so.

By working together, by sharing the responsibility, by unifying, we can make it through these dark times. We can re earn the respect of the rest of the world. We can be an example of how a nation, smashed to pieces, can be reassembled into a thing of beauty.