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FREEDOM AND UNITY - The Great American Political Divide
We have come to a time of borders and fences, of believing in the 'side' that we are on in its rightness and in its disdain for other beliefs and points of view. We have come to a time of not recognizing that we are, at the same time, undermining the very possibility of having what we wish for.
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We need each other and have lost sight of this fact. We, on each side of the 'divide' are part of each other, part of the great American tradition of representing the rights of each individual to determine their own destiny, while at the same time insuring that these same rights are accorded to all.
The great 'divide' is not only between freedom and unity but between liberty and equality, for liberty's essential promise is that of freedom for the individual, while equality's essential promise is that all men and women everywhere shall have the same opportunity to exercise their freedom of choice in all areas of life.
We have come so far as a nation toward believing that 'freedom' and 'unity' are oppositional, that we can no longer see how they blend together. We hold this in principle, yet in practice there are the 'red' states and the 'blue' states, the 'right' and the 'left,' those who hate representatives of one political party, or those who hate representatives of another. We need each other.
We need each other not only to make sense of the democracy that America is meant to be - a complex and magnificent testimony to the ability of human beings to develop an outer form of government that represents the inner principles of Spirit - but also to allow this outer form to adequately represent these principles. We need each other.
We have come to a time of borders and fences, of believing in the 'side' that we are on in its rightness and in its disdain for other beliefs and points of view. We have come to a time of not recognizing that we are, at the same time, undermining the very possibility of having what we wish for. For liberty and equality are and must be wed to each other. They are not separate, for human beings do not live alone. They live with and for each other, despite all appearances to the contrary. Human beings are not alone and do not live alone. They must therefore create a social structure in which all may live freely, with an equal emphasis on 'all' and 'freely.' We need each other.
When we look across the fence that our own hearts have created, when we look at the other 'side' and feel dismayed or even worse at its point of view, we are looking through the eyes of limited perception, as are those who are looking back at us from beyond their own fences. The limited perception is that we can only defend one position or the other, either freedom or unity, either liberty or equality. Yet, this is not true. The liberty of all must take place within the equal opportunity of all to be free. The equality of all must take place within the freedom of each individual to be themselves. Our hearts know how to resolve this dichotomy even if our minds do not. It is to embrace the understanding that we need each other.
Let our hearts soften, then, so that wherever we see through the lens of 'we' and 'they' we recognize our miscalculation. Let us look for the truth that encompasses all, that leaves no one out, that believes that no one's point of view is ultimately incompatible with our own if we look to the deepest core of that truth. This is true even of those who do terrible things in the name of virtue and even in the name of the Divine. At the core of their misguided actions is the wish to live freely, just as at the core of all misguided actions is the belief in something that feels right. We need each other, and must learn to let our hearts guide us to the outer expression of what our inner being holds to be most essential and true.
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