The time to rebuild is coming. We must each think about how that should happen, because happen it must.
We are all at fault. Blindness kept us from seeing who was oppressed, abused, left behind, neglected, and left out. Indifference to our national values put evil in power. Arrogance and opportunism kept it there when it became obvious beyond a reasonable doubt that we were headed down a path to lose our democracy. And cowards in positions of responsibility failed to act.
We came so close to losing everything.
The problems are too vast for any one of us to really see, much less fix. We can only see what’s in front of us. Our reality is circumscribed by our own limitations, perceptions, backgrounds and prejudices.
We may not know the many ways we’ve been part of the problem. We may not even want to hear it. We don’t see our own prejudices.
But we have to. Because this cannot happen again.
Dietrich Bonhoeffer said, “We are not to simply bandage the wounds of victims beneath the wheels of injustice, we are to drive a spoke into the wheel itself.”
Bring everybody home. Include everyone. Fix what’s in front of you, fix what you can see. Do the hard work of examining your own conduct.
Because it’s time to build back better.
For all of us. ALL OF US.
