Inauguration 2021: What We Share as a Nation
Today, Joe Biden will become the 46th President of the United States of America, and we still can’t agree on what is true about the election.
Some people believe the election was a landslide victory. For Donald Trump. Other people believe the election was rigged and stolen. From Bernie Sanders. Some people believe nothing will change because both parties are corrupt and serving the same donors.
No matter how you perceive the current political reality, the day will end with Joe Biden moving into the White House. With Washington, D.C. looking like a war zone. And the same vitriolic and divisive language framing our discourse across a centrally-controlled media.
We still haven’t decided what happened two weeks ago at the Capitol. Was it a coup? By whom? Are certain types of riots justified and others not? Which ones?
We are being told that our country is more divided than ever. Even to the brink of civil war. And it’s making us more divided. Identified and segregated into groups.
Conspiracies spread across the internet like wildfire. Some of them are true. Some of them are not. Big Tech continues to block accounts, censor content, and moderate the conversation with a heavy-handed bias. Which fuels more conspiracies. A handful of powerful men make decisions of unprecedented impact, issuing internet executions and businesses ostracization orders, operating without any public oversight. Meanwhile news outlets around the world report thousands of Americans dead every single day from the coronavirus pandemic.
Like most of us, I am struggling to make sense of it all. I’m fighting this daily battle of cognitive dissonance, because, frankly, my life is pretty great.
But I can’t continue to hit the snooze button. I am deeply troubled by the state of our nation. We have lost our sense of shared reality and responsibility. And we need to reclaim it. Now.
Let’s ask ourselves: what reality do we share?
This seems like a simple question. It’s easiest to look to your family and friends and neighbors. It feels absurd to list it out. But, you know, 2020.
We share the fundamental needs of survival, Maslow’s hierarchy of needs, the infrastructure of society, and faith in the value of currency. But, already, we can pick at the threads and go down a rabbit hole of speculation that is incompatible with a functional, modern society. And this is not enough.
We need to get specific about this moment in time and the context of the 2020 Presidential election.
The simple truth is this: for the last 10 months, we have all been told to be afraid.
Since the start of the pandemic, the majority of mainstream news media sources have told us to be afraid. Stay inside. Save lives. Wear masks. And I am not disputing any of it. I’m not qualified to interpret the medical science of virus transmission or its data.
All I’m saying is that there is the physical reality of the virus and there is our emotional reaction to the virus, created by the media stories that shaped our understanding of the virus. (We’ll save that discuss for a different time.)
We have been sharing this experience of being frustrated and anxious and uncertain for 10 months. People are frightened for the future. Some are afraid of death. Some are afraid of losing freedoms. Some are afraid of the good times ending. Some people are afraid of being evicted or not able to feed their children.
We been quarantined and masked and stewing in uncertainty for 10 months. We’ve lost what we need most: human connection.
We need to share the experience of feeling connected to each other. We are losing that connection. We are using our differing perceptions of reality to dehumanize each other. Using our differences to hate each other. The biggest problem is that we have turned to social media to feel that human connection.
For 6 months, my parents were delayed in meeting their first and only grandchild. Trapped at home, my dad’s small business shut down by the governor of Pennsylvania. Only able to see their grandson through a cell phone screen. My mom finally succumbing to the social media need to see pictures of him grow and smile and crawl — alongside her newsfeed of chaos.
That’s the reality we share right now. Family time is screen time. Social time is media feeds and tv shows and movies of escapism and superheroes that only know how to fight bad guys. As we’ve been forced to go online to connect with those far away, we’ve turned our backs on the people next door.
When I look towards the Capitol, can I see the people next door instead of choosing to see the ones on tv?
I refuse to judge my neighbors for their online personas, for what they think of the pandemic, or Trump, or Biden, or the election results, or the events at Capitol Hill. I won’t judge them for not wearing a mask. As I wouldn’t judge some else who expects federal money to compensate for staying home. We’re frustrated, and it’s really hard to know how to move forward.
As I walk to work watching the sun rise over the Bridger Mountains, I will smile and wave at every neighbor, no matter the colors of their signs. Knowing that Joe Biden will become President today. Knowing that the work ahead means ensuring he understands the importance of sharing a reality with ALL of us.
A reality of family, community support, and trust in our neighbors. If we can’t reclaim that shared respect for each other and hope for the future, it truly doesn’t matter who won the election.
