Quiz in Three Parts--Part Three

Here it is--the last question:

Question # 3: Is it OK to breathe yet?
Again, you may talk amongst yourselves before replying.

For the past 8 years, I held my breath. With George Bush as president, I was so afraid of many things. What social programs would be gutted? Could we possibly hold on to Head Start? How many countries around the world would lose their respect for our government, our country? How many wars would we start, and then be unable to finish? Who among us would be the next group to be despised and blamed for everything from the flu to the downturn in the economy--gays, women, the poor, brown people, beige people....? Would women still have control over their own bodies? Would my country still be my own after Bush and Cheney were through with it, or would I be forced to leave?

Then Barack Obama was elected, and I had such high hopes for America. Sure, he had a lot to take care of, but he was surrounding himself with smart, capable people. It also seemed like my fellow citizens had looked beyond race to choose the man who had the best leadership skills, and we would all unite behind this young and talented president. I believed this country was ready to be the best it could be--for ALL Americans; we would be united for working for the common good. AND, we would all know how to define that common good. Sigh.....yes, I am the eternal optimist.
Eight months later, I feel like I am inhabiting a two-sided body. Personally, I am very happy--my mom is doing OK (OK is good for this month), I'm in a wonderful relationship, and my kids are happy. I have what I need. My life is peaceful, and well, just damned good.
But the outside world is in turmoil, and I've started to hold my breath again. I don't think any of this can be blamed on the actions of President Obama; I lay all the blame firmly on my fellow Americans. The start of the Obama presidency was quiet and yet busy. Then came July and August, and the ugly craziness began. Incivility at Town Hall meetings; I watched fellow citizens in a frenzy, hatred on their faces as they disrupted meetings between citizens and their elected officials. Where had these people come from? What were they so afraid of? WHO was stirring them up--clearly they were hearing something to make them so angry? And they wouldn't listen to anything anyone else had to say; it was like they were being whipped into a frenzy and sent out in attack mode. I had held my breath for 8 long years, and now this rage, this hatred for other Americans, was taking my breath again. And it seemed to come from nowhere. Clearly I was listening to the wrong news channels, reading the wrong newspapers, talking to the wrong people, because I had seen nothing about the proposed reform of health care that caused me to be so afraid. Or anything else that the new administration had done had provoked such a violent reaction in me or my friends. I was a child of the 60's--I've seen anti-war protests, been in marches for reproductive rights, and watched a whole lot of television in the past 50 years. But I have never, ever felt as unsafe as a citizen of this country as I do now. I truly fear for the lives of our leaders; the faces in the crowds are so angry, and it has spilled over into the halls of Congress, where one of them felt so threatened he was compelled to verbally attack the president, saying not, "That's a lie," but "YOU lie!". Where will this end? In violence. That's what happens when a human believes he has no recourse, no "out", and feels his very life is threatened.
And what is it that he is so afraid of? Change.
If you can stomach it, look at the footage from those Town Hall meetings. Probably 90% of those reddened, angry faces belong to middle to older white men. They have never faced change like this before. They are suddenly looking at a president, Speaker of the House, Secretary of State who are not like them. That's unsettling at the least, for they have never seen so much change happen so quickly. As the brilliant Kate Clinton explains, "Republicans treat President Obama as if he were a substitute and they are just waiting for the real deal to come back in the room. That would be a white Republican male. Their desperate efforts to delegitimate an elected president (not to be confused with their efforts to legitimate a selected president) remind me of their panicked response to the terror attacks on September eleventh, eight years ago. For many of them, it was their first experience being attacked. Unlike women, poor people, and people of color who know being attacked as a pre-existing condition, the white guys freaked. Their world order was rocked. They panicked, put the country in lockdown and retaliated against the wrong country. Once again their worldview is being rocked - demographically, racially, economically, politically."
Yes, "Their" country is gone forever. No matter how they wish it to be back the way it was, it never, ever will be. And I say, "Good riddance." This change is good. Deal with it. Leave your guns at home, take deep breaths, and close your mouths and open your ears. If you truly love this country, you'll do this. For all of us.
And we'll ALL be able to breathe again.

Quiz in Three Parts--Part Two

Last night, I dreamed I was walking home on a Sunday morning, and saw some protesters outside of a mainstream Protestant church--the denomination was not ever identified in my dream, but I can only guess it was a Lutheran, Methodist or Presbyterian church. The building was not big, nor were the people going into the building anything but ordinary. Let's just call it "Everychurch".
The protesters were loud, and were waving signs--I couldn't ever clearly read the signs, but they were all homemade and the words were in black and red. The faces of the protesters were vicious, full of hatred, and frightening.
I walked up to one of the protesters, and asked why they were there. She said, "Because they don't worship God in the right way!!!! They don't honor Jesus properly!! They are evil!!!" I asked, "But aren't you Protestant too?" She replied, "That's beside the point!!!! They aren't being religious enough!!" I watched the people filing into the church. They looked scared, and wouldn't even look at the protesters, let alone engage them in conversation. I couldn't believe how ridiculous this was--both groups of people called themselves Protestant, yet this group outside looked ready to kill those inside. I tried to reason with the protesters, yelling to be heard above their shouts and threats--"This is crazy! Both of your denominations believe in the same basic things; you even say you worship the same God!" But the protesters wouldn't listen to reason; all they could say, over and over again, was that THOSE people didn't worship "right". Finally, exasperated, I asked what "religion" the protesters were. "We're Baptists!" was the reply, as if that explained everything.
I felt really sorry for the denomination under siege, but felt powerless to help them. The next Sunday, when I saw the protesters again, I had an idea...

Question # 2: Did I:

1) Walk away, convinced I was seeing the demise of Christian religion as I knew it,
or
2) Decide to bring back some of my Unitarian Universalist friends, thinking that they could successfully help protect one side against the other, because the UUs could be neutral parties.

I decided to do #2, because I really thought those "Everychurch" people needed protection from the more fundamentalist of their Christian religion. And UUs could be neutral--could judge both sides on the merits (or lack thereof) of their arguments, and find a peaceful solution--after all, UUs have been fighting for social justice for years.
No offense to the Baptists; they may be perfectly nice, but I was not ready for a religious war in my own country, especially over something so petty. I think my dream was an illustration of my deeper fear for this country--that we are becoming so ideologically polarized that we can no longer meet in the middle.
And that is what leads me to question # 3.