Longing for a state and country I can believe in

This column is a major departure from how I have written columns for nearly four decades.

It is personal.

I have avoided using “I’ and have endeavored to remain objective and impersonal as I have addressed and analyzed myriad social, educational and political issues across race, age, gender and socioeconomic status.

That has been my practice, whether writing for radio, in print when I wrote for The Kansas City Star and other newspapers, or online writing for The Missouri Independent the last four years. Even in my own blog.

Maybe the “I” in this column is a “collective I” that tugs.

I have a hunch that many of my fellow Missourians and Americans may be feeling as I do as we live through unprecedented, tumultuous, and unsettling political times.

What are you longing for?

I long for a state and country where:

• The fundamental tenets, rules, procedures and laws that have governed our democratic republic still hold true and still mean something as we function in the public square and in our everyday lives.
• Our institutions and their histories still have meaning, value, collective power and influence.
• There is real meaning and we still value representative government, where those elected really believe in respecting and fighting for the issues and concerns of those who voted for them, sent them to do the people’s bidding.
• Each of us can wear the Missourian and American identity with pride, humility and thankfulness irrespective of skin color, gender, place of birth, social or economic station or political leanings.
• The behaviors of the leadership in our state and nation — our governor, the legislature, our president, the halls of Congress — are shining examples to be emulated, duplicated, and cheered on.
• There is hope and a positive outlook about what each of us can achieve if we work hard enough.

Some may consider those longings naive or idealistic.

I do not.

As a Black woman, born and raised on a small farm in Mississippi, and who has lived and or witnessed first-hand the good, the bad and the ugly of life in America, I have always remained hopeful and refused to give up on believing in the best of our collective humanity.

Even now — as I watch the callous and inhumane way undocumented immigrants are being treated, how caring and career public servants have had their lives upended as their jobs are snatched and taken away indiscriminately with little or no notice — I still believe our collective decency and collective humanity still exist and is worth fighting for.

When I watch DEI programs being dismantled across every aspect of American life as if the playing field is equal, I still believe in fairness and decency in spite of my experiences throughout my career — not getting jobs I was qualified for, sometimes overly qualified for, not able to buy a house in a neighborhood I could afford, on and on.

Despite those experiences, I refused to be bitter, paint the situation or future prospects with a broad brush, or feel that I would always be victimized by racism and sexism.

If I am a victim, it is in my belief that hope for a better humanity reigns eternal.

But today and for some time, I must admit, I am finding it difficult to not become pessimistic, to not throw up my hands and say, “What’s the use? Why not just sit on my porch and watch the birds, and the changing sky?”

Can I or any of us afford to do that, check out and ignore the constant bombardment of news that fly in the face of what this great “Heart of America” state and the country that was once considered the “Beacon on a Hill” supposed to be about?

We see examples and reminders every day that we are allowing debased values and goals to kill the progress we have made for over two centuries.

Why? Why? Why?

Are we willing to sit by and watch what is happening to our state and country?

Why?

Who are the few, yes the few, representatives in Jefferson City and Washington who will assume and use the power invested in them to stand up and stop the negative and destructive trajectory — of us versus them —  that the state and nation is on?

No matter where we hail from, no matter our circumstances of birth, we have shared experiences that should bind us, not divide us.

More importantly, keep us divided.

It really is not about “us” against “them.”

If only we could just keep that thought top of mind.

It isn’t about labels either: Republicans versus Democrats, conservatives versus liberals.

Like many of you, I have voted for both Democrats and Republicans. I vote for the person and what they stand for. I am both conservative and liberal — and moderate — depending on the issue.

When it comes to what is best for Missouri and America, it is about building bridges that we can all walk across to achieve the best good for the greatest number.

That is what I long for.

That is my hope.

What is yours?

We need to have an answer to pass on to our children, our grandchildren, and their children.

Our collective future is dependent on it.