This commentary is by John Bossange, a retired middle school principal who now volunteers on a number of nonprofit boards in the Burlington area.
As President Biden begins to define his goals, like other presidents before him, he has set up an ambitious 100-day plan for his administration. That’s a good thing and will certainly require some reckoning of the condition of America following four years of turmoil.
But as important as the president’s actions will be, as citizens we need to get our 100-day reckoning act together as well.
As individuals we should follow the words of Coach Vince Lombardi: “When you lose, say very little, and when you win, say even less.” This is no time for Biden supporters to gloat and make sarcastic comments and generalizations about those who voted for Trump. Nor is it a time for Trump supporters to breathe the air of conspiracies, anger and denial and make aggressive comments towards those who voted for Biden.
Our collective reckoning, our moving forward and not holding on to bitter campaign rhetoric, will be essential to ensure steps are taken toward a “more perfect union.” The transition did not just occur on Jan. 20. The next 100 days of reckoning will be a true test of the nation’s transition, and it begins with us, not just with President Biden.
As the president said, “It’s time to listen to each other.”
“Listening can fill the crack in the middle where people on both sides absolutely refuse to see each other as evil,” the theologian Frances Kissling tells us. “We spend so much time and energy wishing to change other people’s minds. But in life as it is lived, that’s not how it works. Hearts soften and then minds open.”
I believe there is middle ground between us, and getting there is when we will be successful with our national reckoning. We are much better as individual citizens and as a nation when we listen, understand, accept differences, and let our hearts open. Then slowly we will be able to fill the crack between us with common understandings. As the president told us on Jan. 20, “We are good people. We can do this.”
And we can, if we begin to first separate ourselves from the intensity and the bias of 24/7 cable networks along with unregulated social media chatter. Snarky comments made on MSNBC, CNN, and some of the traditional national networks, combined with the arrogant, entitled, conspiracy-laced talk on Fox and social media platforms, have propelled us onto two different planets.
Trump’s behavior was a great ratings bonanza for the media, but it came at a terrible cost, foremost with the assault on the truth. For four years, too many of us were entertained and did not really face ourselves, question our value set, or think about where our information originated. We need a good, hard reckoning over our complacency and failure to bring our critical thinking skills to our news sources in our pursuit of the truth.
Absent the Fairness Doctrine, media outlets need to have a reckoning as well with what they’ve done to the conversation in America and how they have polarized the nation. Media organizations have a moral obligation to invite panelists and commentators from all sides to have balanced discussions for Americans to see, to understand, to accept different points of view, and to better measure opinions.
But it begins with us. We need to understand the sources of our information, be aware of the differences between fact and fiction, and the political and financial gains made by others when we do not exercise our civic responsibility to question what we are told to believe.
Aside from the media, there are other institutions that need a reckoning as well, beginning with the U.S. Congress facing a 15% approval rating due to an inability of many representatives to work in a bipartisan manner and put the needs of the country, defined by our Founding Fathers as the “common good,” ahead of their party, state or gerrymandered district.
Corporate America also needs a reckoning for draining our nation’s treasury and running up our national debt by lobbying for a 21% tax rate.
And the Evangelical Christian community needs the same for supporting a president who never behaved as a follower of Jesus, never used scripture to guide his reasoning, and weaponized Christianity for personal political and financial gain.
But the reckoning really does begin with all of us as individual citizens. As Frances Kissling reminds us, listening and learning from others will open our hearts first.
For me, reckoning now means opening my mind to others and saying: “Now I understand. I never realized that before.” For those in leadership positions and members of institutions, it might mean a different kind of reckoning.
100 days. Let the conversations begin. We must find that opening in the middle where we refuse to see each other as evil. If democracy is to survive in America, we need to do this now more than ever.
