I love learning about history.
It makes me more patient and less anxious.
And, it makes me realize the world moves slowly, ever so slowly, in the right direction...
Much like a massive slow pendulum finding its center.
Thomas Jefferson 210 years ago, was a principled and imperfect man.
He fought the press - which many tried to discredit.
The country in its first years battled between the Federalists and the Republicans...
Leaders were accused of flip-flopping.
210 years ago - they argued that people could not agree with their party "blindly" and faulted many for doing so...
During these past months, I have been torn by the divisiveness of the rhetoric and the dialogue for us as a country...
And, yet, as I hear the challenges, the tone, and the issues that challenged our country from its very beginning... I realize disagreement has been a part of the United States, democracy and probably mankind since our inception.
Disagreement is not disharmony.
Disharmony is one of the ways that we can choose to react to disagreement.
One of the absolute truths of MAN... is that we WILL DISAGREE.
WISHING that we didn't is ignoring our truth and creates disharmony. I am guilty of this.
Deep down inside, I want agreement. I want alignment. I want everyone to understand a common truth. And, that is not reality.
I think perhaps it is our growing expectation that we should NOT disagree that is making this current political situation so disagreeable!
I think perhaps it is the technology that has become so EVER-present that makes the reality that we disagree as human beings, and disagree passionately, so IN YOUR FACE...
Perhaps this discord that we feel, is not that we are MORE divided than we have been in the past, but rather that we are MADE MORE AWARE of OUR DIFFERENCES... of the GRANULARITY of our DIFFERENCES, and of the PASSION BEHIND OUR DIFFERENCES because of technology.
I do not like Donald Trump as a human being. I do not like him as a leader. I do not like him as a man. And yet, I think I am supportive of many, if not most, of his fiscal policies and direction. I am very supportive of the drive for smaller government, for greater candor, for challenging the system with new minds and new thoughts.
I like Barack Obama as a human being. I respect him as a leader. I admire him as a man. And yet, I think many, if not most, of his fiscal policies and direction pointed the country in the wrong direction. I do not believe that the government needs to grow and the lifetime politicians scare me more than brand new people who have never been in government.
It's complicated. It always has been.
"We the people" is what made the United States different. It wasn't that everyone would agree. It was that everyone would share and respect disagreement differently than they had in the past. Monarchies, dictatorships ruled the world before the United States existed... the civilized world was a place where there was ONE right and ONE wrong. And "right" was dictated by who was in power. And, power was won by force.
DEMOCRACY perhaps above all fragmented power into the people, and respected that force could not be the solution to disagreement. Discourse and TOLERANCE to discourse was what would make democracy different. RIGHT would no longer be "owned" by the person in power, but by the "majority" of the voices of the people.
History is like the old guy sitting at the end of the bar...
He's seen this bar fight before...
He just orders up another bourbon, smiles and watches the young guys throw chairs...
Thomas Jefferson was an amazing man, who instilled amazing values into this country.
All of his values were met with tremendous disagreement from nearly half of the population of the country at the time.
Personally, he loved a black woman and was essentially married to a black woman, had children with her, and despite the fact that he was President of the United States was unable to make any dent in the reality of slavery.
How deeply do you think he DISAGREED with the majority of the country that he was helping to establish?
DEMOCRACY is about respecting disagreement,
because
DEMOCRACY is about respecting "WE THE PEOPLE!"
We have never been more aware of our intense disagreements.... every little aspect of it.
The offensive comments from the woman in the city council of West Virginia about Michele Obama made me cringe. They made my heart hurt. For a moment, they made me emotionally question the goodness of mankind.
And, then I think, Thomas Jefferson's love of his life was arguable a black woman... what were the thoughts of the millions of people he LED in this country with respect to African Americans? How many did he hear first hand?
And yet, he stood calmly, pushing forward for democracy,
pushing forward for the USA.
History is not just an amazing teacher,
he is a wise counselor,
he is a calming voice,
Democracy is about people...
WE THE PEOPLE,
in disagreement...
AND
in harmony,
Nestor