Commentary: Most Americans do not want a political revolution; they want human rights. They want their community to be safe and for their family to have access to health care. Most Americans want a fair tax system that provides for essential services, such as sanitation, waterworks, roads, schools, and hospitals. Most Americans are in favor of common-sense gun regulation, including background checks and banning military issued assault weapons. Most Americans view structural racism as a reality and do not see the current prison system as sustainable.
If we stopped talking over and at one another, we would see that most of us want the same results. We may have different ideas about how to achieve those results, but Americans, by and large, believe in the principles of life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. Ours is a conflict based on a failure to communicate, more than a contest of values.
That said, do not let the propagandists tell you otherwise. These are the corporate merchandisers, media pundits, and career politicians who benefit from having Americans believe that we speak different languages when it comes to the core issues. The vast majority of Americans speak the same universal language of love, peace, and unity. Who do you know who wants to be sick and not afford healthcare? Who do you know who wants our schools to be dysfunctional and children poorly equipped to enter the workforce? Who do you know who wants failing bridges and polluted rivers? Who do you know that believes insane levels of income inequality is good for democracy? Who do you know that wants violent offenders to have access to more guns?
We need to get back to basics in this country. I am not talking about reverting to a time when everyone got along, and every problem in society had a solution. No such utopia has existed in America and never will. But there have been times when we could see each other as parents, friends, neighbors, colleagues, and fellow citizens. We may not have agreed with the choices of others, but we could still have compassion for each other. We may not have always understood the political wish lists of different political parties. Yet we could be open to the possibility that wisdom exists in strange and unusual places. And we may not have encouraged or amplified voices that made us uncomfortable. Yet we trusted in the enlightenment of our forefathers and foremothers who believed in the beneficial freedom of self-expression and self-determination.
No, we do not need a political revolution. We do not need a socialist revolution or a right-wing revolution. We do not need more voices of anger and division. We need healthcare for every citizen. We need a fair and livable wage for every worker. We need a tax system that advantages everyone in society, especially children and the most vulnerable among us. We need clean and renewable energy. We need equal pay for women, comprehensive immigration reform, and gun regulation that makes our communities safer. And we need systemic racism to be totally and permanently uprooted from our criminal justice system. Our survival as a democratic society is bound to these goals. To achieve these goals, we must engage one another as equals, if not in intelligence and social ability, then in the eyes of "Nature's God." (Thomas Jefferson's specific words from the Declaration of Independence.)
We are not obligated to agree with one another, support each other's opinions or positions, or fight less to have our ideas enacted. But we should view one another as intrinsically valuable to the vitality and longevity of our United States of America. That obligation is in the Declaration of Independence for a reason, and every citizen in the country must defend it with their life. For if we cannot preserve our right to disagree with respect, then we will not have a nation to govern.
George Payne has degrees in American History from St. John Fisher College, American Religious History from Colgate Rochester Crozer Divinity School, and Philosophy from Emory University. He is a social worker in Rochester.