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Connections In a divided america

When I teach, I often begin the semester by asking students whether they think the United States of America, as a country, is on the right track or headed in the wrong direction?

Over the last three years, students in my classes have consistently said the country is on the wrong track. When I ask why they answer by saying that it seems every time we take a step forward, someone is forcing us to take a step back. When I ask for specifics they cite the recent Supreme Court decision on abortion, issues surrounding gay and transgender rights, and police violence. Without citing partisan politics specifically, because my students don’t naturally think in those terms, they say it seems like no one is listening to anyone else.

A few students look optimistically toward a future in which they will be in charge. They agree with their fellow students that we are on the wrong track, but they believe that when their generation rises to power the old ways will be tossed to the side and the world will look as they think it should look.

El Paso and West Texas

It is too easy today to assume we have nothing in common with our fellow Americans. The news tends to highlight what divides us and in some cases there are news outlets dedicated to a specific point of view and the denigration of opposing points of view. In this information ecosystem harmony can seem an impossible goal.

Since 2020, about six months into the Covid pandemic, I’ve done a lot of solo traveling around the country. From the east coast, across the midwest and south and to the mountain west and Texas. It is a big country, but it is small enough to notice that we have much more in common than we might think if we limit ourselves to our personal zones of safety and comfort.

When you are on the road, away from the media centers of the east coast, you begin to realize how irrelevant most of the debates taking place in Washington, D.C. are for many Americans. A farmer in Illinois does not have time to count how many votes it takes Kevin McCarthy to become Speaker of the House. A parent in Oklahoma may not have the time to be upset about the finances of Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas. Yes, the average Texan may think that President Biden is no spring chicken, but unless you can show him how that is hurting him specifically, he’s Ok with it, for now.

New York

If the great middle of America were in charge you get the sense it would focus on what’s important. Our government would be both liberal and conservative. We would take care of those who need government’s help, we would protect the nation from enemies foreign and domestic, but we would do it all with fiscal responsibility and we would meet any deadlines with which we were presented. Common sense would be the guidepost.

Traveling from state to state makes plain how much we have experienced together and achieved as a nation. The historical markers of the United States are interconnected in both space and time. Place names and the locations of important historical events may seem distant from where you live, but when you are on the road - out in the great middle - they pass by with frequency. You begin to connect history with actual locations and local populations that contributed in some way to where we are collectively as a country. The timeline of our path to a more perfect union can be drawn on the interstate.

Above: Tulsa, New Orleans, Memphis

Since the beginning there has always been a debate about who is an American and who gets to decide. We are having that debate now. We have never stopped having it. If we are divided, this is the base question dividing us. The answer to the question should be easy and obvious.

If you can call America your home, then you belong. You are an American entitled to enjoy life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. You can do so as long as you don’t deny those same privileges to any other American. If you look around, look across the country, visit and understand how all those we consider “others” because of random accidents of geography and birth, you would better understand that we are not different, we are the same. We are all Americans. We are collectively responsible for our failures and our successes.

Clockwise: Los Alamos, New Mexico. Fort Hancock, Texas. Teapot Dome, Wyoming. Ames Monument, Wyoming.

There is no need to wait for the next generation to take over. The way to end the division is to end the practice of focusing on what divides us. All we need to do is get out of each other’s way so everyone can enjoy the freedoms of the country we built together on our own unique terms.

New England.

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© Dean Pagani 2023

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© Dean Pagani 2023

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