From My (Almost) Daily Journal

Yesterday was great. I had three Zoom sessions and each one filled a totally different niche in my life. The first was a small group Lunch meeting with our Financial Advisor, Tom Vaughn followed by a 4:30 Yoga session for an hour and the “working” day finished with a church choir rehearsal at 7:00 p.m.

This was a well timed busy day to keep my mind occupied while the wait for the results of the 2020 Presidential Election to be finalized. I’m getting tired of hearing the words “battleground” states. It makes it sound like we are at war. I for one am not at war. I want the Election to be conducted as elections are supposed to be conducted in this country and then let’s get on with the business of making the country great. So much rides on this presidential race. So much rides on this election.

I don’t think that many folks on the Republican/Conservative side have a grip on the true nature of the horse they are riding. My hope is that Biden-Harris can garner the Electoral votes that they need and start bringing us all back in the direction of together. It’s going to take a long time and lots of sincere, focused positive energy to get this country back on track.

The White Supremacist culture must be addressed before this country can be linked to the word great. President Trump’s slogan, “Make America Great Again,” is simply not a true statement. Greatness has not yet been achieved. It will begin to be achieved as soon as we acknowledge our national problem of race.

My feeling is that we can begin to address the issue of race by creating a process similar to the one used in South Africa after the collapse of Apartheid. South Africans began a dialogue on race through a Truth and Reconciliation Commission which gave people a chance to hear the experiences of others and begin to reconcile their differences. We simply need to start communicating with each other again. This division stuff must come to an end.

Along with a Truth and reconciliation Commission, we need a common media outlet that every feels comfortable watching and listening to with each other. When we have the same basic information, we then have a common foundation on which to debate our differences because we will know what our differences are. I don’t think that we have that now.

My passionate fear of “The Right” is undoubtedly matched by a passionate fear of “The Left.” The way to start addressing these largely unfounded fears is get rid of “Right Wing” media and “Left Wing” media and replace them with a “Middle Media.” It will need to be a place where people all along the political spectrum can gather, listen to, think about and converse about the issues of the day. In the media market we have today, common ground is nearly impossible to find.

We need dialect on guns, immigration, reproductive rights, health care, regulations, law enforcement and so much more. It’s time to get busy. Let’s use this moment in time to get it done.