Editor,
Pulitzer-Prize winning author, Isabel Wilkerson’s comparison of American to an old house leaves much for us to ponder.
“America is an old house. We can never declare the work over. Wind, flood, drought and human upheavals batter a structure that is already fighting whatever flaws were left unattended in the original foundation. When you live in an old house, you may not want to go into the basement after a storm to see what the rains have wrought. Choose not to look, however, at your own peril. The owner of an old house knows that whatever you are ignoring will never go away. Whatever is lurking will fester whether you choose to look or not. Ignorance is no protection from the consequences of inaction. Whatever you are wishing away will gnaw at you until you gather the courage to face what you would rather not see.
We…are like homeowners who inherited a house on a piece of land that is beautiful on the outside but whose soil is unstable loam and rock, heaving and contracting over generations, cracks patched but the deeper ruptures waved away for decades, centuries even. Many people may rightly say: ‘I had nothing to do with how this all started. I have nothing to do with the sins of the past. My ancestors never attacked Indigenous people, never owned slaves.’ And yes. Not one of us was here when this house was built. Our immediate ancestors may have had nothing to do with it, but here we are, the current occupants of a property with stress cracks and bowed walls and fissures in the foundation. We are the heirs to whatever is right or wrong with it. We did not erect the uneven pillars or joists, but they are ours to deal with now.
And any further deterioration is, in fact, on our hands. Unaddressed, the ruptures and diagonal cracks will not fix themselves. The toxins will not go away but rather will spread, leach and mutate, as they already have. When people live in an old house, they come to adjust to the idiosyncrasies and outright dangers skulking in an old structure. They put buckets under a wet ceiling, prop up groaning floors, learn to step over that rotting wood tread in the staircase. The awkward becomes acceptable, and the unacceptable becomes merely inconvenient. Live with it long enough, and the unthinkable becomes normal. Exposed over the generations, we learn to believe that the incomprehensible is the way that life is supposed to be.”
Wilkerson suggests that we must summon the courage to “see past the plaster, beyond what had been wallpapered or painted over, as we are now called upon to do in the house we all live in, to examine a structure built long ago.” (America is an old house.)
I believe the current division of Us vs Them demands that all who are genuinely concerned about the future civic health of our country must rise up to address the complex issues we face in our community and work together on solutions. It is from this sense of urgency that I offer a bolder vision for what Warwick residents can do to move democracy forward. I am calling this project “We the People: The Many Faces of America” and encourage you to join me as we explore questions such as what is our image of the America of the next century? What vision of an ideal America will inform our struggles with current issues? Can we identify those values and commitments that we need to share if we are to be a successful society?
Everyday Democracy, a national leader in the field of civic participation and community change, has the tools and resources that can help us foster civic engagement in our community of Warwick. They offer a practical road map for organizing dialogue circles (democratic, small group of eight to 10 people), peer-led discussions – via Zoom), where community members of different backgrounds and views talk over the course of several weeks (led by trained facilitators) engage in constructive, respectful conversations. More than ever our country needs ways for diverse people and institutions to come together to create deeper understanding and systemic change.
I recognize this as a complex undertaking and that pulling it together will require “all hands-on deck.” I envision “We the People” discussions starting in May, but in order for this to occur many things will need to happen at the same time: coalition building, communication and publicity, recruiting participants, training facilitators, fundraising, planning for action and more. I am curious if there is enough interest and energy in our town to support this” “We the People” initiative. There are openings to fit every level of availability; there is a need for individuals who can take on leadership roles as well as for those who can only volunteer to manage an individual task. If you would like to work on making this happen here in the Warwick community, please email me at wethepeoplewarwick@gmail.com to learn more and to find out how you can help.
BEVERLY BRAXTON
#wethepeoplewarwick
