The underbelly of American society has been laid bare by the vicious self-serving Trump team and equally horrible pandemic. The results of years of neglect and inequity are visible in long lines for food, long lines for pandemic tests, overtaxed ER rooms, and the great number of deaths, particularly deaths from marginalized and underserved groups in the United States.
This dire circumstance has me thinking about how we take this struggle and use it to work for our dreams for a better America, what do we hope to build?
Strong, dynamic communities
I think it is important to begin with communities--how can we build strong, dynamic, equitable communities everywhere in the United States? What do we need to do to make those communities safe, happy, and productive?
First, we have to make sure that the communities are safe in all ways. People live well in safe communities. Safe communities will profit from sensible gun laws, environmental protections, and good common laws and positive law enforcement.
We also have to make sure that every community has affordable, accessible, and good quality homes, health care, education, nutrition, and recreation. When people are distanced from quality basic needs of shelter, health care, education, food, and recreation, they are more likely to be compromised, unhappy, and not peaceful.
If every American community has was they need to well support the people that live there, we will be off to a great start as a country.
Positive community-to-community intersection
We have to find ways to help communities intersect in positive ways. We have to look for places where it is advantageous to have common laws so that as people move from community to community they can do that in peaceful, healthy, and positive ways.
Solving common problems
As a people, we share common problems and we have to solve those problems as a united people. One of the biggest problems staring us in the face is environmental destruction--that will put an end to all of us if we don't act. We have to act as a United States to fight that problem.
Another problem is racism--we have to rid our country of the structures that promote racism. Racism holds us down as a people--we have to get rid of it.
We also have to solve the problems of unsafe roads and needed transportation updates so that people and products can move from community to community, and we have to work together to forge peaceful, positive relations with other countries across the globe.
So in general, my dream for America begins with strengthening every community so that everyone has the chance to live a good life and then building out from there. I believe we can do this, and I'll think about ways that I can contribute to this in the days and weeks ahead.
