My hope is that one result of Hurricane Katrina?s aftermath will be a new opening up of real political conversation. How do we work together to make sure that human suffering is mitigated when the next disaster strikes? This would not justify anyone?s suffering?or remove blame from parties deemed responsible-but it would give more fruitful meaning to this suffering by giving birth to something positive. We all need to forget about winning campaigns for once?many of us seem to have forgotten that campaigns are not the reason for governments-and work together on some actual ISSUES that matter. The tragedy of Katrina has revealed some of these, namely the fragility of urban poverty, the importance of managed/coordinated disaster response, the continued racism/classism in America and the cost paid for the moral failure to imagine disaster before it strikes.This conversation should be broader than government--it should matter to us all--and some voices need to rise up from the people. Martin Luther King did more to help make this country better than any president who comes to mind. What we need is an American Renaissance, where the best possibilities for our community are re-imagined, and revitalized into a better future for our children, their fellow citizens, and the world community. This is essentially a liberal moment in the best, non-polarized sense of the phrase--a moment when partisans become freed from the status quo of their various ?isms? to become citizens, where holding onto ideology at the expense of judgment is seen to be as futile and hopeless as trying to grasp a handful of water. Solving problems begins with recognizing and analyzing facts?and basic facts should not be political?they simply are or are not. When we forget this?or when individuals bend the facts to meet their political agenda-we all get into trouble.
As long as the political conversation is about the virtues of elected officials?currently President Bush is the focal point-or even about elections-those with liberal or conservative leanings will do little or nothing to actively improve society. Both "sides"--in actuality there are many more than two, especially when you take each issue at a time--do us all harm when they fail to give an accurate accounting/assessment of political situations, in order to bash the "other side." It creates the illusion of their actually being two sides, when there are not. What there is is one community with many shared values--but with manifold interpretations of these values and how to live them. We can disagree on interpretation--heck, that's what our beloved freedoms are all about--but we need to move toward becoming a community of concern that works toward gaining a more accurate view of our situation/problems if we are ever to fix anything. If all we do is chatter using our various code languages, we stand at Babel and continue to work against each other, against our own community, and against our children's future. Who wants to actually fix something? I hope we all do, but I fear we have forgotten how--we have become too concerned with "winning" to give enough attention to fixing.
I am no fan of the President--I voted against him twice and have been against the war from day one--but what I personally want to think more about is what our best next president would be doing right now and how ordinary citizens can push/pull him or her along this path. Activists ought not be only people who just care about elections, polls and political chatter--we ought to be doers of our words. We ought to have real causes that move us beyond the feeling of impotence into action--even if that action is a simple conversation. The difference between chatter and conversation is simple--to have a conversation you need to listen and be open to the possibility of learning and growth. Meaningful political conversation seems nearly dead in America, despite all the noise. I think Katrina provides a new opening for conversation and I hope this is an opportunity we will seize.