Consuming Ourselves

I understand political opposition. I realize that competing parties will badmouth competition to persuade others to their side. Like the playground kids, the arguments are persuasive only in the power tactics used. Some would term this bullying; and I would agree.

Surely the logic is not persuasive, none is given in such settings. However, reasonable people will eventually settle into comfortable chairs and discuss the problem, its dimensions and reach, and possible solutions that could be applied. The discussion needs to be multi-dimensional. Shared thoughts, expertise and organizational skills are needed to craft workable solutions. This is collaboration.

If the parties to this discussion are all from one political party or power source, the solutions will most likely be unworkable to those from another camp of thought. This describes America today. If the idea comes from ‘our group, it must be good.’ If not, it is highly suspect.

When Katrina hit the gulf coast several years back, the blame game was played. But then mature minds said, people have died, people are dying, and families are displaced on a large scale. A city lies in ruins. We must do something.

And we did. More than $20 billion was provided by the Federal government. Insurance industries claims exceeded that number, so the total outside financial help totaled $40 billion. Local, state and private funds upped the ante many billions more. In all, perhaps more than $100 billion was spent renewing New Orleans and the Gulf Coast.

We did that together. Agencies came together to fulfill their established missions. Charities and churches did the same. Political parties grumbled but the machinery of government took action and did the right thing.

Why do we treat other problems differently? The crisis of gun violence is bigger than Katrina was. Its toll of death, disability and destroyed families and communities is much greater than Katrina. Yet we allow the day-to-day toll to accumulate into decades of horror without doing anything about it. Gun violence is a human problem created by humans. We can do something about it. We need to do something about it. And we ought.

Others make this into a political problem. It is not. It is a human problem. Let’s pull together and do something about it.

Like the economy, inflation, recession or the threat of recession, let’s do something about the situations and improve on their impact. Let’s turn a problem into a challenge well met.

Now is not the time to belittle our President, or each other, or the captains of our government institutions. Let’s accept the challenge and do something positive about it.

Not doing so is an act of futility. It is us consuming each other until nothing is done or can be done.

Pitiful.

July 11, 2022

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