First, some background. What do I want to do with this topic everyone hates? I started my senior year of high school in September 2001. I was born in and grew up in New York; though I wasn't there when it happened the Twin Tower attacks resonated on a few levels. I got this feeling that I had to make some kind of meaningful difference in the world. That I had to better understand people, and big problems, and that I was pretty well suited - with my interest in arguments, groups, and talking a lot - for the field.
So I dropped my graphic design major and studied political science for my undergraduate and graduate degrees, with a break for an AmeriCorps year of service in between.
Since 2001, I've worked for all three levels of government, and worked with counties, regions, parishes, boroughs, sovereign native tribes, councils, and executives brand new and far more seasoned than me. I've been a government representative at the table with dozens of non-profits, including Occupy, churches, and international charities. I've volunteered in voter projects, spoke in town halls, and stood right in the middle of policy decisions and government actions that have made me weep.
I've since moved to different paid work, though I stay involved in other ways. But my point is to say I'm into politics.
A couple of things have stuck with me, and shaped my thinking.
My favorite political science professor was really good at keeping us all guessing about what he really thought. On the last day of "Intro to Ethics & Politics" (which I assistant taught for 3 years as part of my grad work) he would recount the long list of difficult questions we'd grappled with over the semester. Then he'd add off-handedly, "And just in case you were wondering, my opinion is yes, yes, no, yes, sometimes, no, no, and yes..." and the undergrads would go nuts, because that was all you could get out of him. When I was grading papers for that class, he always emphasized: we weren't grading what side students took, but if they learned to read, listen, analyze and argue in a meaningful way. The class was all about this crucial skill: engaging meaningfully with ideas. I admired the way he could get people talking, listening, tackling ideas together, diffusing personal conflicts, understanding and being better understood.
After several years working for that professor, I heard him say something else - I'll paraphrase:
We can think of politics as a way of working out who has the one real truth, the one right way, the ultimate good. That ventures close to religion.
Another way to think about politics is from the perspective that all human beings are fallible. We have to figure out how to live in a society with and make laws that will be enacted by fallible people. And maybe none of us has the one real truth by him or herself. But maybe, if we engage with one another to try and work it out, we'll get closer. And if we all bring our best to the table, we'll get as close as we can get.
Both of these ideas stuck in my head. On one hand, there's a certain ideal of neutrality in civic discussion - especially how we teach it. (Different ways states teach civics was the topic of my grad thesis). As a teacher, mentor, role model, older sister, aunt, moderator, as someone interested in ideas - my instinct on the one hand is to ask questions, and reserve my personal passion carefully. What I want folks who are learning from me to learn more than anything isn't to take received wisdom from me but to think, reason, articulate, reflect. That I value their genuine contribution and collaboration more than winning agreement.
I don't always live up to this ideal. But I aspire to.
Somehow - the ideal goes - if we could talk about ideas passionately, and do our best to set aside the vitriol, we could hear what each other are saying better. We could get closer to the truth together, better.
On the other hand.
I'm called upon to bring my very best to the table.
I'm called upon to bring not just questions, but ideas. My best ideas. My best arguments, analysis, listening, research, responses, community action; my best attempts to understand the good, the just, the right, and the truth.
I'm called upon to speak my truth.
So, this brings me to what I want to say about politics.
I haven't lived as long, or studied as long, or worked as long in politics as some folks, and I don't think I have the one right answer. But here's what I have seen. Here's what I've experienced. Here's what has resonated.
Here's my truth.
Politics is nothing but people, and people need our love.
Politics is what it looks like when people - who are loud, messy, terrible, and great too - get together and try to make something that goes beyond them. We're going to do that. We're going to exist with each other. The most important thing we could possibly do for a better society isn't any one policy, or any one law or any one right way of doing things.
The most important thing we could possibly do is come to the table together and bring our best. Listen to each other even when we disagree, take what we've each brought and consider it. Keep ourselves open to finding something new because we've listened, maybe been transformed. Keep coming back to the table. And try to move forward, together, with as much compassion as we can, closer and as close as we can possibly get.
On the other hand.
I'm called upon to bring my very best to the table.
I'm called upon to bring not just questions, but ideas. My best ideas. My best arguments, analysis, listening, research, responses, community action; my best attempts to understand the good, the just, the right, and the truth.
I'm called upon to speak my truth.
So, this brings me to what I want to say about politics.
I haven't lived as long, or studied as long, or worked as long in politics as some folks, and I don't think I have the one right answer. But here's what I have seen. Here's what I've experienced. Here's what has resonated.
Here's my truth.
Politics is nothing but people, and people need our love.
This imperfect world needs our love.
(Does that venture close to religion? Or life philosophy? A search for shared values? Maybe. Maybe if I speak my truth, and try to understand yours while you try to understand mine, we can find our common ground.)
There are hard problems, real hurt, terrible wrongs.
Humanity still needs our compassion.
We're going to argue. We're not always going to find solutions.
I still need your hope.
Sometimes it will feel like we're utterly failing.
We'll still need people's hearts to stay.
Humanity still needs our compassion.
We're going to argue. We're not always going to find solutions.
I still need your hope.
Sometimes it will feel like we're utterly failing.
We'll still need people's hearts to stay.
I know sometimes we'll lose faith, break down, flip out, check out.
Loving people anyway is our most essential work.
Politics is what it looks like when people - who are loud, messy, terrible, and great too - get together and try to make something that goes beyond them. We're going to do that. We're going to exist with each other. The most important thing we could possibly do for a better society isn't any one policy, or any one law or any one right way of doing things.
The most important thing we could possibly do is come to the table together and bring our best. Listen to each other even when we disagree, take what we've each brought and consider it. Keep ourselves open to finding something new because we've listened, maybe been transformed. Keep coming back to the table. And try to move forward, together, with as much compassion as we can, closer and as close as we can possibly get.