Searching for common ground

Acoustic Dad has called a roundtable. He asks the question, "Will a bi-partisan sense of We The People, ever truly exist?" Stone Soup has already weighed in with a post. Kathy says in part, "It seems pretty hopeless at times, but I think its possible if we put aside our individual needs and come together for the public good."

I agree and in fact have already been asking myself that question for some time now. Pragmatic soul that I am, I've been exploring ways to reach across the aisle. If I've been missing in your referral logs and comment sections lately, it's because I'm on reconnaissance on the right wing blogs. I've been haunting Gut Rumbles and a handful of his regs for several weeks and I came to a very important conclusion. Behind their politics, they're not so unlike us. We're all just good people doing the best we can with what we have to work with.

Since Mike called for this discussion after the arrest of Cindy Sheehan, this post at Baldilocks perhaps illustrates my point.

Juliette compares and contrasts Coretta Scott King and Cindy Sheehan. I don't really agree with much of it but it's a well written and thoughtful post. More importantly, is it's absent the mocking language that has become so prevalent on both sides of the blogdom. I felt enlightened by her point of view rather than blungeoned by hateful rhetoric. It inspires me to respond in the same temperate tone and that I think is the key to finding our common goals as Americans.

Juliette makes some good points on personal conduct in presenting dissent and the danger of alienating potential converts to your cause with extreme tactics. Advice that could be well taken by the fringe element on both sides. But Cindy is not a fringe speaker. Like it or not, she speaks for a small majority of the American people. And the photo ops have been effective in getting out a legitimate message that has every right to be heard in a free country.

While it's true King and Sheehan share commonalities I don't think it's a fair analogy. For one thing comparing their style doesn't take into account the cultural differences. As my dear friend Irma told me as she was preparing for a family reunion. We may not have a pot to piss in, but a black woman never walks out her door until she's immaculately done up from the waxed eyebrows, right down to the painted toenails. Cindy, like me, doesn't come from a dress up culture. That doesn't mean we're not respectable, we're just not fancy.

Then there's the age difference. Coretta came from a generation that stood in dignified support on the sidelines. After her husband died, she promoted his cause but she hardly took up the mantle and made fiery speeches about the plight of her people. Cindy grew up in culture that encouraged a more proactive stance.

I'm going to leave alone the misstatements about the incident which I addressed in this post. I'm assuming Juliette wrote that before the new information became available. But the subsequent apology by the Captiol police, I think bear out my point that Cindy did nothing to deserve to be arrested.

I agree with one of the commenters at Baldilocks that a more valid comparison could have made between Cindy Beverly Young, wife of Rep. C.W. Bill Young (R-FL). Both were removed for wearing tshirts. Young's could have seen as supporting the administration. Young was removed but not arrested.

Cindy and Young are much more equivalent in age and experience. They share a concern for the soldiers, each expressing it in a way they believe is best to show their support. And both know when to use a well timed curse, not against each other, but against injustice as they see it. As Ms. Young said, in response to a different incident,

"F--- that!" she later said. "Print that: F--- that! These kids ought to be able to get anything they want from a grateful American."

Profanity has its place when confronted with intolerable injustice. I would submit that all three of these women are moral women, true to a cause they believe in. Though we may not always agree on style, the substance of their beliefs are valid and the humanity of their goals are worthy of our respect.

But it's okay that we disagree. We're supposed to disagree. That's a sign of healthy democracy. But the health of our society depends on civilized discussion of our differences. The longer we bicker over our disagreements, the more it weakens our republic.

Victory can only be found in consensus. We The People are the most important check in the balance of power. It's our civic responsibility to find our common ground and direct our collective anger where it belongs - towards the politicians of every stripe who have corrupted our system of government and are running the ship of state aground.