It's Not the Statues, Stupid

In a blog about relationships, I’d be remiss not to address the biggest relationship issue in today’s America. What is happening? Civil discourse seems to be an oxymoron in much of our discussions about politics, ethics, morality, religion, and social issues of various stripes. And I’m talking about both sides and even the middle.

How has it happened that we no longer assume good intentions (until shown otherwise)? Two Arizona Senators have been in the news lately making the plea for civility and respect in American politics.

Jeff Flake took Barry Goldwater’s 1960 title, Conscience of a Conservative, and gave it his own twist with this subtitle: A Rejection of Destructive Politics and a Return to Principle. That is a powerful statement for our times. But what is he doing beyond writing a book about bridging the gulf?

John McCain returned after brain surgery and gave an impassioned speech to the Senate urging them to working toward common goals, find common ground, and create bipartisan solutions to the problems we face. And then he voted for a bill that violated all that he said he wanted. So where does that leave me in my respect for his speech and intentions?

When did “compromise” become a four-letter word? Ben Franklin realized that the future of the Constitution was at risk. He urged delegates to compromise and to sacrifice, not their principles, but their overwhelming need to be right. And that’s what I see happening today.

We are finding more ways to divide us than to bring us together. Division opens the door for despots to exploit our cracks. It is not overly dramatic to say that our republic, the finest governmental experiment in history, is at risk. And all because we cannot find common ground. Intransigence of our leaders is a threat to our country that might be even greater than outside forces.

The Founding Fathers had to compromise, on very hard issues, or we would not have the Constitution or a United States of America. Surely the issues confronting us today are not harder than the ones they faced in the creation of a new form of government. So why can’t our legislators, and even the common folk, follow the example of these Originalists who knew that compromise was hard but necessary?

The statues controversies are a smoke screen for much deeper issues that require resolution. If all the statues were gone, bigotry, racism, discrimination, and hate speech would, sadly, remain. It’s not the statues or monuments. It’s peoples’ hearts.

During the early days of school integration, I watched the images on TV of a nation struggling with inequality and unreasoning hatred. I said to my father something like, “It’s good they’re letting kids go to the school they want.” My father’s response was, “You can’t legislate peoples’ hearts.” He was against forcing integration and didn’t think it would ever work.

I am a Unitarian Universalist. Our first principle is that we “affirm the inherent worth and dignity of every person.” Don’t most religions believe that? How can one say heesh is Christian (for example) and go out and burn a Black church or synagogue? What if people actually believed the creeds they say in their religious setting instead of mindlessly repeating them? Would bullying stop if people lived their religion instead of using it as a shield?

What if our legislators looked to the common good instead of the bribes from corporations that keep them in office? What if compromise on hard issues were seen as a sign of strength, not weakness? What if compromise were to be elevated again to the status of statesmanship?

Let me leave you with a couple of more quotes on compromise:

“Fight as hard as you can, and then understand there’s going to have to be some amount of reasonable compromise.”   ~Andrew Cuomo

“Learn the wisdom of compromise, for it is better to bend a little than to break.”  ~Jane Wells

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Facebook: Statue-removal is a red herring. And when did “compromise”, a strategy employed by the Founding Fathers, become a four-letter word? Check out “It’s Not the Statues, Stupid” at  http://bit.ly/2z0wz7G

Twitter: Statue removal and compromise are big relationship issues facing US. We need to find ways to get along better  http://bit.ly/2z0wz7G