We Live In A Political World: #190 / Channeling Dear Abby

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Dear Abby,

I have a Facebook Friend who posted the following message on her Facebook Profile Page, on July 4th: "NOTHING TO CELEBRATE HERE." Another one of her Facebook Friends responded as follows:

We have a plethora of strong resistance organizations, affinity groups, NO kings Indivisibles that are thriving doing well developed strategies of resistance in every possible way. Even the local 4th Parade had one of the largest contingent groups with message of fighting fascism. I see so many, many folks who have not been radical in the past taking step for fighting the regime. All of those folks are worth celebrating. MSNOW had a great 4th hour long townhall on fighting and resistance that was excellent [emphasis added].

My friend then responded this way: "Oh yes, I celebrate those fighting fascism. Just not celebrating the birthday of this horrible country" [emphasis added].

I care about my Facebook Friend, and this Facebook exchange caused me some real distress. I don't, personally, think that our country should be defined as "horrible," though I do think it is true that the United States government has done some horrible things (right from the very start), and is continuing to do some horrible things on an almost daily basis. I have always believed in that "Better Angels" approach, and I think we should, as Americans, work to make the country better, and particularly because we do claim to want a system of "self-government," which really says that "we, the people," ARE the government, and ARE the country. I do think that's true, and we are not, in my opinion, all "horrible."

I write a daily blog posting, and my blog posting from yesterday, I think, is relevant to this way of looking at things.

Do you have any advice on what I might say to my Facebook Friend, in response to her claim that our country is "horrible"?

A Concerned Friend

Dear Concerned Friend,

In many different human situations, a commitment to "forgiveness" is an essential supplement to the kind of direct action needed to deal with bad behavior. In my opinion, we need to take action to oppose - and to seek to rectify - bad behavior by our government (which is, indeed, bad behavior by ourselves). But since we are, ultimately, supposed to be in charge of the government, we need to move beyond our past (and present) failings as we work to do the right thing. What is most important is not what has been done in our name, in the past - or what is being done in our name right now - but what we will do, now, to change all that is horrible.

Defining our nation as "horrible," as opposed to putting the spotlight on various horrible actions of the country, and seeking to change our bad behavior, is not, in my opinion, the best way to mobilize our energies and efforts to transform the future, even as we must never forget the horrible things that our nation, and its government, have done in the past, or may be doing today.