Unity on the Potomac?
The Potomac is smooth as a mirror today. The wind occasionally dusts its surface. On lamp posts by the river, American flags catch a light breeze and flutter under an overcast sky. Fall is stirring in the air though joggers still run in shorts and tee shirts and students pace to the boathouse for afternoon rowing practice.
A mile form here Washington is recovering from two major State visits in four days—first Pope Francis and literally on his papal heels, Chinese President Xi Jinping.
But here on the river with a view of Memorial Bridge and the Kennedy Center, of the traffic cruising on Rock Creek Parkway and airplanes taking off from National airport, it is unusually quiet for a Friday afternoon. Couples stroll by. A mother with a pram stops and looks out on the gray-brown water. The city is perhaps letting out its collective breath. There have been no attacks, no disasters.
Washington has feted and listened—been told to unify for greatness by the Pope and then looked for common cause with the Chinese leader who has limited shared values and certainly not an agenda of individual freedom.
It is always an existential question whether America—“one nation under God with liberty and justice for all”—can live its ideals and live in the world.
From a political point of view, the right to dissent and the forums to express disunity are fundamental and the very evidence of a nation breathing, of a democracy working. No one is arrested or imprisoned for their disagreements. We have the freedom to be in gridlock though surely there is a better way to demonstrate freedom. The question ahead as political campaigns heat up is whether we can breathe and disagree and at the same time govern and guide.
The spiritual call for unity is one each citizen must find in his own sanctuary, not in the halls of Congress.
As I’m writing, I hear sirens whining in the distance growing louder and louder, and in front of me on this terrace overlooking the river, a great crane appears and a wall is literally lifted out of the walkway. I’m told these walls, which lay buried most of the time, were installed after the last great flood wiped out the waterfront. The waitress returns and tells me they are now raised on any threat of a flood. Down river floods have occurred and may be moving our way.
Love this: “We have the freedom to be in gridlock though surely there is a better way to demonstrate freedom.”
Thank you for your welcome, mellow Potomac report after these recent days of breathless, all-eyes-on-DC reporting! It’s so good to take a moment to appreciate signs of harmony and unity…whether long-lasting or momentary.
Thank you. Joanne, I so appreciate this very insightful point that you make:
“We have the freedom to be in gridlock though surely there is a better way to demonstrate freedom. The question ahead as political campaigns heat up is whether we can breathe and disagree and at the same time govern and guide.”
Thank you Joanne for the peaceful Potomac.
Gridlock -is it an image of unplanned, chaotic stuckness or a determined strategy to not move. “Don’t block the box” signs here in NY warn the drivers about not getting stopped in the middle and thus stopping others. I saw a typical example today- when there was a lot of traffic – young woman who slid her car into the middle of the street after having clearly seen she would not make her light, but doing it anyway. Blocked cars and pedestrians and had a look on her face like -oh my. But -no backing out of that dilemma, so – oh well- took over and on she went.
Did she need “guidance”? Or a traffic ticket?
Whom should we be “guiding” in our government at this moment? How do they see themselves in all of this gridlock? Oh we are the owners of “correctness.”
Suppose this is not in the same mood as the calm of the Potomac- although I had 4 days at the ocean which was also very calm. Last days of summer are quite lovely.
Sounds like you are quite well.
Thank you, Joanne, for your poetic reflections on the state of affairs in our capital. You are striking at the heart of our situation when you ask whether we can make practical our ideals as a people who, under God, respect liberty and stand for justice. In the end, that’s the basis for unity, and we need to elect officeholders who share those values above the lust for power.
Thanks, Joanne for your poetic reflections on the state of affairs in our capital.
You are striking at the heart of the matter, which is that unity will be possible only if we choose officeholders who are dedicated to the high ideals of our nation, instead of personal power and partisanship.