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A BENCH AND A TREE

THE JOURNEY (Mary’s Blog)

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ABOUT

MEDIA

A BENCH AND A TREE

“Winning is Easy . . . Governing is Harder”

Oct 23, 2016 | 0 comments

When I first began writing this blog in August of 2012, I wrote about “my reader.” A sculpture of rusted steel, she sits in our front yard balancing a book in one hand, a glass of wine in the other. I wrote, “What would I tell her, my reader, if she were my daughter?”

The question guides my monthly blogs.

This month I have thought a great deal about what I might write “my daughter.” The mood across our country and the planet is dark, filled with unrest. Influenced by my experiences, by the writers, poets, and artists who adorn my bookshelf, by the debates I have endured, I cannot remain silent about this election. The choice between presidential candidates is as stark as any in my lifetime.
For much of my career working for one of the world’s largest healthcare companies, I was the only woman in the room. I had to work hard, smart, and develop a thick coat of armor to be successful, to eventually become one of the company’s presidents. As a result, I have nothing but respect and admiration for Hillary Clinton. She is a pioneer who has endured more public floggings than any human being in recent history as she transitioned from First Lady to Senator, to Secretary of State, to Presidential candidate. She brings courage, experience, toughness, and brains to our country at a tumultuous time.

She is not perfect. But our democracy was not created with perfection.

In Lin-Manuel Miranda’s award-winning Broadway musical, Hamilton, a performance based on Ron Chernow’s book, Alexander Hamilton, President George Washington tells the bright, egocentric, passionate Hamilton “Winning was easy, young man, governing is harder.” Washington instructs his protégé that he must slog through the compromises necessary to create a monetary system critical to the survival of the nation. He must find a way to work with those who oppose him.​

Our democracy was built on the unsexy, arduous, often messy, job of compromise.

As a result, the polarizing language used by Donald Trump alarms me. When I hear him revving up his followers, urging a “Revolution,” I fear we are in the midst of our own “Arab Spring,” where violence could tear apart our families and communities. We do not need to abandon a Constitution that has survived over two hundred years, a Civil War, two World Wars, and made us a world leader. We do need to elect people at all levels of government who are willing to look for the common ground, to sweat through negotiations with people of differing views in order to make our country even greater. We need to support those who respect the separation of power outlined in the Constitution, willing to ensure our judicial, legislative, and executive branches of government are functioning at the highest possible level for the good of the people. All people.

In the book Soul of a Citizen: Living with Conviction in a Cynical Time, Paul Rogat Loeb says: “We mistrust our own ability to make a difference. The magnitude of the issues at hand, coupled with this sense of powerlessness, has led far too many of us to conclude that social involvement isn’t worth the cost… it’s what psychologists call learned helplessness. Society has systematically taught us to ignore the ills we see, and leave them to others to handle.”

Admittedly, the political rhetoric has been so divisive, so suffocating, so long-lasting, that it can be tempting to turn away in an exhausted heap and leave there for voting to others. But we cannot afford to sit out this election. We shape the lives of our children by our example. We shape the life of our country by our involvement. We must vote.

On November 8, we choose between a candidate who understands and has experienced the underpinnings of democracy and one who appears to be a demagogue. To me, the choice is so obvious there is no choice. But the real beauty of being an American is that we can agree to disagree and still live peacefully alongside one another.

That is a fundamental principle worth protecting.

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