Barrett Rainey: It takes shared commitment to foster renewal in America

Barrett Rainey

About the writer: Barrett Rainey is an Air Force veteran, former pilot and former reporter for radio and TV stations from Cheyenne, Wyoming, to Washington, D.C. After previous stints in Oregon, Idaho and Arizona, he and his wife, Barbara, have retired to McMinnville. He writes on a regular basis for the Carlton-based Ridenbaugh Press, where this column originated.

What will we be like — what will this nation be like — on the other side?

One day, this Covid-19 business will be over. One day, thousands and thousands of dead will have been mourned. The sick will be well. Hospital operations will return to normal. Doctors and nurses will work usual schedules. The feelings of fear will be calmed. What will it be like?

One day, the Congress of these fractious states will return to the business of legislating for the people instead of the current divided, do-nothing, look-the-other-way creature we have now. The needs of the citizens of the 50 states will, again, become the substance of hearings that result in answers rather than stonewalling. What will it be like?

Truth is, no one — not one among us — can answer the question of what this nation will look like in 2025 and thereafter. The recent years of uncertain governance, coupled with a worldwide pandemic, have twisted, pulled, strangled, tortured and severely injured our Republic.

Ultra-conservative corporate front organizations like ALEC — the American Legislative Exchange Council — have flooded state legislatures with carbon-copy bills authored by and dedicated to the benefit of the ultra-right and its Big Business benefactors.

Citizen needs have been ignored in attempts to legislate morality and citizenship as promulgated by evangelical groups who believe it’s their right to determine how citizens of this nation should live. When their loud, fanatical and divisive voices are stilled, what will this country become?

The plain fact is those promoting division with racist, jingoistic lying have been more successful separating us one from the other than the virtues of patriotism and inclusion that historically brought us together. When we needed to reach out to our brothers and sisters, we were warned: They can’t be trusted because they look different and speak different. They’ll take our jobs. They’ll undermine our nation’s traditional white, Christian majority.

The last couple of decades — and especially the last few years — have stressed our nation and its governance to its limits. What we’ve witnessed, what we’re living through, is a time of internal national struggle, involving all our fundamental institutions and beliefs.

The process of returning to stability, of re-establishing trust in our institutions and re-creating a functioning government, does not start at the top. It starts at the bottom.

It starts with us. All of us, no matter our skin color, nation of birth or religious practices.

Some of us won’t be around to see how this all plays out. The nature of things, of the process, is to hand over responsibility to the next generation.

After the Civil War and two world wars, that process included expansion. Expansion of territory, expansion of housing, expansion of rights, expansion of all the things those wars had been fought to protect.

The difference now is that expansion must be accompanied by inclusion. Inclusion of race and nationality, inclusion of a new direction for our institutions and government, inclusion of differing religions and customs. That’s the only way we can proceed as a unified nation.

Voices of division and mistrust must be stilled. Voices of collaboration, coming together and sharing what comes next should be amplified in commerce, politics, religion and our evolving national institutions.

What will it look like? No one knows. But we need to get started.