It has been hard to pull myself away from the news over the last few weeks. Of course the national election has been the backdrop – Trump and Clinton vying for a history-making victory in the presidential race.
But then there was the worst mass shooting in our history, followed by a filibuster in the Senate and a sit-in by Democratic members of the House of Representatives.
We are living in extraordinary times. And sometimes it feels like the United States cannot or will not be able to resolve the monumental challenges that come at us on our TV screens and our Facebook feeds every day.
There is a phrase that comes to mind as I think about the last few weeks. That phrase, “American exceptionalism,” is most often used by folks on the right of the political spectrum. They see the United States as uniquely chosen by God to lead the world due to our faith in a Christian God, our belief in free markets and our God-given form of government.
On the left end of the spectrum we often evoke America’s exceptionalism as well, but not for the same reasons. We point out that our country spends more on war, incarcerates more of our citizens than any other country in the world and we have more firearms per capita than any other country in the world. We call out the contradictions.
So generally, the right tells a faith-based origin story as the reason for our exceptionalism and the left points to our moral deficits.
Neither of these approaches will allow us to bridge the yawning gaps that divide us.
In fact, we are in a time of increasing nationalism, both in our country and globally. Trump’s astonishing takeover of the Republican Party and the British vote to quit the European Union have common anti-immigrant, country-first roots.
The things that divide us are driven by fear and anger. Fear of strangers from somewhere else or those speak a different language, fear of people who don’t believe in the same God as we do, and anger that outsiders threaten our safety and economic security in an increasingly unfair global economy.
When we are driven by fear and anger we lose track of the truth. Since 2001, 3,380 people have been killed in this country by acts classified as terrorism. That stands in stark contrast with the 406,496 people who have been killed with a gun by accident or by suicide or who have been murdered by another.
And despite the political rhetoric, there has actually been a decade-long decline in the number of undocumented immigrants to the United States. We have food on our tables and care for our seniors in large part due to the labors of both documented and undocumented immigrants.
Maybe we need a new story, a redefinition of American exceptionalism that has less to do with nationalism and fear. Maybe we need a new origin story that connects us to the migrant journey in all of our families. Maybe we need to tell a new story about our collective responsibility for each other’s safety, instead of an individual right to own a deadly weapon of war.
I have been thinking a lot about the 49 people who were murdered in Orlando. Forty-nine people who had their own story of migration, their own loving families and their own struggle to find safety and acceptance; they are the face of American exceptionalism. And the 20 children of Sandy Hook are the face of exceptionalism, the hope of the next generation.
Since the beginning of the nation, the United States has been the place people seek out to make new lives for themselves and their families. We have never been perfect. Native Americans lost their land as we arrived and the stain of slavery and racism is still being washed out of our country. Women have had the vote for less than 100 years. Gay and lesbian people have had the right to marry for a year and a half. Transgender people struggle for understanding and we have a justice system that is sometimes very unjust.
Our Constitution calls for us to form “a more perfect union, establish justice, (and) insure domestic tranquility.”
What does that mean today? How do we honor those who have lost their lives in gun violence? How do we help immigrants and Americans, both struggling in an increasingly unequal economy? How do we overcome the fear and anger that divides us and that open the door to quiet fascism? Right now I only have questions.
Clare Higgins of Northampton, the city’s former mayor, is executive director of the nonprofit Community Action! of the Franklin, Hampshire and North Quabbin Regions. She writes a monthly column and can be reached at opinion@gazettenet.com.