Dear America;
This is your first week with a new leader; President Biden is now your commander in chief. I realize that close to half of your people had hoped he wouldn’t be, so I understand if you’re feeling pretty divided right now. With 3.28 million people it’s harder to keep everyone happy than it is to convince a three-year-old she needs a nap. There has been a lot of discussion and aruging about how accurate the voting was, but at the end of the day the only indisputable fact is that it was close. Really close. This means that just over 1.5 million people are unhappy about the result, and that adds up to a lot of anger and disappointment.
The truth is though, while your president does have a large measure of power and influence, it actually doesn’t matter as much who sits in the oval office as you might think. Biden, his cabinet and the administration really only make up a tiny percentage of 3.28 million. Yes, I know they have the ability to create and rescind acts and laws and I’m certainly not trying to trivialize those roles. What I am trying to communicate echoes what your new president said in his inaugural address regarding the future of this nation when he stated that it “Does not depend on one person, but on ‘We the people.'”
He is right, America. Your future in the world depends on those people: all 3.28 million of them. Not just the majority, but the minority. Not just the loud and outspoken, but the ones who are quietly watching and working and hoping. Not just the ones with influence and a large platform, but the ones who live each moment facing their own personal battles and making choices on how to fight. Each of your individual occupants is making daily decisions on how to reach out, respond, react and receive. Some of them are louder than others and do their best to instigate the change they feel is necessary, regardless of whom it may hurt. Others are silently seething about real or perceived injustices and are a hair-trigger away from instituting violent retribution on a world they see as unfair. Still others are doing their best to build bridges between groups of people they don’t fully understand but want desperately to unite. You are full of so many types of humans that I worry you might feel as if all of those differences are coming together like baking soda and vinegar and your tenuous environment of peace may erupt in a modern-day civil war.
Take heart, my country. To quote your new president again; “The forces dividing us are not new.” You have a history of inhabitants with different beliefs; in fact, that is one of the tenants you were founded on. You have had times when those differences were celebrated and used as the cornerstone for a beautifully blended society. You have also had dark times when differences of thought, opinion and personage caused unbelievable pain and suffering. I’d like to remind you of two things. First: you are full of a smart and dynamic population that has shown it has the capacity to not just learn from its’ mistakes, but to change. Second: because you have shown the historical ability to compromise and become unified, you have proof that you are able to do it. These two characteristics should give you faith that it is possible for your people to learn, change, compromise and grow.
The sweet young poet who spoke at the inauguration wisely professed: “We learned that quiet isn’t always peace.” Please don’t lose heart when people shout their opinions and yell for their cause because those can simply be ways to make sure they are heard and noticed. However, your people must also be reminded of Biden’s statement that: “Every disagreement does not have to be the cause for total war.” Be thankful for different thoughts and opinions because those can create discussions in which the middle ground can be carefully carved out of the earth and walked upon. The hard part is when people choose not to hear the other side, and instead create sound-proof walls surrounding their own stances and making it impossible for them to meet and walk a pathway that benefits the country as a whole, instead of their personal desires.
Tensions are running high in your land right now, I know that. The same people who were hurt four years ago by the winning party’s unkind words and actions are using the same techniques to be hurtful as the winning party themselves. Many groups are choosing personal attack over unifiying prayer. It may seem that your inhabitants care more about their own agendas than what is best for you. Please don’t give up. Your president’s speech also included a beautiful quote from the Bible: “Weeping may endure for a night, but joy comes in the morning” (Psalms 30:5). Give them some time.
I pray for you often, America. I pray that your people learn to listen before they speak and remember that even the most seemingly insurmountable differences often have a shared value if they are explored and traced back to their origins. This is not to say that the essential need for commonality as a people should ever include a compromise of values, but instead only a compromise of position. I pray your people are able to distinguish between realistic and unrealistic expectations and settle on a middle ground that is able to support all of them, not just the outspoken or the powerful. I pray that your leaders (political, religious and otherwise) rise up in ways never seen before in promoting love and truth. Biden shared one of his hopes for you in stating, “We will lead not by the example of our power, but by the power of our example.” I pray that your “we the people” remember that they are the examples, each and every single one of them. I hope that each individual occupant chooses not to react to any divisiveness they may experience, but to be examples of leading and teaching and sharing and learning in a way that mimic’s God’s love.
I’d like to share one last thing with you. There’s a place in the Bible where the writer has experienced a time of great despondence. As the author recalls the darkness and hardships he writes: “I well rememer them, and my soul is downcast within me. Yet this I call to mind and therefore I have hope: because of the Lord’s great love we are not consumed, for His compassions never fail. They are new every morning; great is Your faithfulness,” (Lamentations 3: 20-23). Since the moment you were born, my country, the sun has set every night and come up every morning. Since the moment your modern-day government was conceived your inhabitants’ desires have been to be “A more perfect union” and “One nation under God.” Yes, you may not be at a place of peace right now, but that can change. God, with each new sunrise, offers a new chance. By learning to listen and speak up, disagree yet still discuss, give and receive, forgive and find new faith and work as a group that is able to see the collective future instead of individual agendas, your people will be unified. They will become a team working toward bettering their country and its’ relationships with the rest of the world. It will certainly be a lot of hard work, but I truly believe that they think you’re worth it.
So, congratulations on beginning your next chapter. I will continue to pray for you and the other countries God also placed in this world. Keep the faith, America, because your people are stronger and kinder than you know.
With Love,
One of “We the People”
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