I write in response to an Oct. 6 commentary by Margaret Woolley Busse and to everyone calling on my compatriots and me to “not let ourselves be divided” and that democratic values are what unite us.
The reality is that we do not have a shared sense of reality in this country. Has it occurred to you that our entire framework of shared meaning is well past due for a reckoning?
Considering that nations like North Korea refer to themselves as “democratic republics,” considering the atrocities that the United States was founded upon, and considering that the U.S. seeks no truth or reconciliation for said atrocities and continues to repeat them, do you really believe that anyone even agrees on what democracy is?
Why do you feel entitled to repeatedly call for our investment in this “grand experiment” when many of us are tired of being the experimentees? Indeed, our broken electoral processes and exploitative political leaders have tugged hard at the loose threads of divisiveness, but those threads were already unraveling.
So-called “centrist” claims that democracy is what unites us are rooted in deep denial and a lack of imagination based on fear of the unknown.
It’s time to relearn how to be philosophers. What might we accomplish, what transformation might come from a 21st century Reconstruction era if we kept pulling at those loose threads? Is dividing into two separate countries really the best we can do?
I don’t know the answer to these questions, and my point is no one knows, because we’ve never tried through a truly inclusive framework.
I challenge all of my compatriots to stop letting fear and denial limit our imaginations and ingenuity when it comes to building spaces of autonomy and freedom. Only when we build something from scratch together will genuine unity be realized.
Shea R. Claude, Salt Lake City