Perspective A:
“The city has always been the decisive battle ground of civilization and religion. It intensifies all the natural tendencies of man. From its fomented energies, as well as from its greater weight of numbers, the city controls. Ancient civilizations rose and fell with their leading cities. In modern times, it is hardly too much to say, "as goes the city, so goes the world.”
— S. J. McPherson. (1850-1919)
Presbyterian Minister.
Perspective B:
“People in the country wave because it’s important to them that they wave. The response doesn’t alter what they feel they should do. Apart from that, they generally don’t overthink things. They have too much to do.”
― Donna Goddard, Purnima
Donna Goddard is an author and shares her love for the Divine and the world with a large international audience. She lives in rural Australia.
The rural and city tension was on display in Tennessee this week, that was stated as one reason for the ‘un-democracy’ which we all observed,
The state certainly is not unique for this dynamic, my home state exhibits the very same, although the overall difference may be less in Montana,
There is certainly a degree of misunderstanding between city and rural, but it is not to the degree perceived by so, so many most likely,
There is an obstinacy at play, the shared resentment, the collective fear and loathing, and both suffer from it all.
The “blue city” within a “red state” carries with it a struggle in personal values, and unfortunately can extend to open hostility, closing of minds even tighter,
The power struggle is an immense source of political and ideological friction, greatly hampering the state government’s efficiency, so many lose to this frictional heat,
Dialogue has never really been in play, many may prefer the cultural experience of France or Greece to that much closer at hand in their backyard,
And the gathering into camps is amplified by media bias which permeates as the source of information chosen, as the other may be only “fake news,” as certain actors may claim.
There certainly is deep resentment, which cannot be addressed if the actions of a Tennessee supermajority is chosen, this was not a workable blueprint,
The root of the problem is safely locked within the belligerent, those who know they have to be correct, as their colleagues agree totally that they are,
“What we have here is failure to communicate,” a line from a very old movie, and perhaps different in context, but an important line to take to heart,
Total understanding, total acceptance is of course most likely off the table, shared experiences, or lack of such are what they are,
But we can do much better than we have, if commitment to democracy is actually pledged and acted upon,
This writing is all very idealistic, and perhaps unrealistic, but the problem will not reside on its own,
We must live our American life as we can, with the freedom available to us, but we can’t undercut other’s freedoms in the process,
So I have written my solutions within these lines as I see them, and I can only hope for actions aimed at resolution, not conflict as what appear to only observe now,
“Give and take” is American, winner take all is built into our government much to our shared detriment at times, but we must work around it, not use it as a baseball bat,
Let’s look for our similarities much closer than for our differences,
If this is possible, we can all win perhaps to a degree, as our forefathers may have envisioned.
36th posting, April 8, 2023