About Connections: Love it or hate it, history is a map. Those who hate history think it irrelevant; many who love history think it escapism. In truth, history is the clearest map to how we got here: America in the 21st century.
Do you remember how you felt when Sully turned the Hudson River into a runway and landed Flight 1549 safely?
“All these people should have been dead and some of them didn’t even get wet,” a tugboat captain said.
Did you watch as small boats, tugs and police craft, in a ridiculously short time, sped to the scene and took the passengers off the wings? Remember the joy, the pride you felt?
The son of a dear friend was riding down a highway in California on a nice day, nothing much on his mind, when a plane came into view. It was hanging too low, traveling too slowly. It dipped and crashed right in front of him. Half in shock, half in urgency, he mustered what he remembered from Boy Scouts, lifeguard and wilderness training and ran toward tragedy. He pulled the body of the dead pilot out of the wreckage. The co-pilot was barely breathing. He administered CPR on the pavement. Another car stopped to help. Together they wrested the critically injured passenger out of the back seat.
Have you stood before the Memorial Wall at the CIA and thought of the lives lost in the pursuit of truth and honor? imagined the real-life dramas played out to achieve a star on that wall? thought about what it is to be a hero in secret, even after death?
Remember the tension and prayers for the boys in the cave and the divers planning their rescue? Remember the international “hurrah!” as they came out safely two by two? Regardless of race, religion, national origin or ideological stance, the actions of the competent and the generous make us feel very good.
A man doing his job. Another man doing what was necessary. Men and women doing their jobs in secret for the good of the country, not self-aggrandizement. Nineteen trained divers risking their lives—one losing his life—to save mankind’s children. It is the spirit of America, the acting out of our core values—which are what?
Individualism: the belief that each person is unique and special, that we all have a need for independence and a right to individual expression and privacy. Equality: the right to be treated equally in society and under the law. Work: a strong work ethic and a belief that leisure and material comfort are the rewards of hard work. Optimism: the belief in the possible. Mobility: the right to move physically and socially. Altruism: the belief in helping others. Achievement: an emphasis on getting the job done.
How did you feel when you heard the crying children—not trapped by nature in a cave, but trapped by the arbitrary whim of man—in a detention facility without friends or family? Do you remember?
Regardless of who you voted for or who you currently support, how do you feel listening to all the name-calling and the excuse-making after the incompetence? I am so tired of the negative. If hating and belittling everybody is uplifting, I missed that chapter in the instruction manual on living well.
Supposedly our leaders remind us of the best in us; supposedly the best leaders are aspirational. Yet it would seem in order to be aspirational, fair and kind, first you must be competent. Those focused on the job and intent on completing the work assigned to them, those working for benefit of others and without an undue need to take a bow or toot a horn, those are the ones with the confidence to allow for others to thrive. If you are incompetent and self-concerned, you tend to try and distract from the mess you are making by making a lot of noise—blaming others, excusing your own failure or lying about it.
In the mist of this morass, what are we good at now? Are we getting the job done? Are we Americans protecting the nation, our electoral process, the right of our citizens to make a living wage, the ability of our country to protect its resources? Are we even good at getting along?
Let’s not clean up this mess for politics or ideals or ideologies, let’s do it because competence and kindness and humble heroics make us feel good. It really is the American way. The rest is just noise.
