{"id":763,"date":"2018-02-05T10:57:40","date_gmt":"2018-02-05T15:57:40","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/connietuttle.com\/blog\/?p=763"},"modified":"2018-02-05T10:57:40","modified_gmt":"2018-02-05T15:57:40","slug":"come-and-meet-me-in-the-middle-of-the-air","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/connietuttle.com\/blog\/come-and-meet-me-in-the-middle-of-the-air\/","title":{"rendered":"Come and Meet Me in the Middle of the Air"},"content":{"rendered":"


\n<\/a>
\n<\/a> \"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Somebody (everybody!) needs to remember that we share\u00a0<\/em>a national identity \u00a0that is only possible when we are willing and able to have difficult conversations. We have become ‘the other’ because we are a different color, gender, national origin, ability, age, or political identity. The problem is that the idea of our democracy only works when we are able to reasonably disagree with one another.
\nThose of us in the Judeo-Christian tradition have the sound advice of the prophet Isaiah (1:17-18):<\/p>\n

learn to do good;
seek justice,
\nrescue the oppressed,
defend the orphan,
\nplead for the widow.<\/p>\n

18<\/sup> Come now, let us argue it out<\/em>,
\nsays the Lord<\/span>:
though your sins are like scarlet,
\nthey shall be like snow;
though they are red like crimson,
\nthey shall become like wool.<\/p>\n

“Come now, let us argue it out” or as translated elsewhere, “Come, let us reason together”. \u00a0The problem for \u00a0us as a nation and society (or one of many) is that we don’t seem to share the values upon which we were founded. Those values have always been our pride and our curse. \u00a0There is a gospel song that invites us to ‘meet in the middle of the air’: https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=6VGHfpvkI1c<\/a><\/p>\n

From the beginning issues have been strongly argued from many sides. Big issues. Moral issues. Deeply personal issues. Issues that, even though we went to war with one another, the idea that we are one nation triumphed.\u00a0We must \u00a0learn to “argue it out’ \u00a0no matter how difficult the\u00a0conversations are.<\/i> Otherwise, political identity supersedes the ideas upon which we are built. Beware, it is happening right now. The era of Trump has obliterated national and cultural norms. (By which I mean things we have mutually accepted and agreed to without codification. For example, we would not call for our political opponents to be jailed.)<\/p>\n

We must talk to one another. Unfortunately, it is the task left to the Left. Because talking to one another requires respect, curiosity, and the willingness to listen through another’s fear.\u00a0<\/em>We need to be patient and safe enough to the other person to hear their viewpoint. We need to stay calm. We need to do all this because\u00a0WE<\/em> recognize our connectedness even when the other side does not.<\/p>\n

Let us have the difficult conversations without seeing ‘the other’ as enemy.
\nTo save ourselves we must save us all.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Somebody (everybody!) needs to remember that we share\u00a0a national identity \u00a0that is only possible when we are willing and able to have difficult conversations. We have become ‘the other’ because we are a different color, gender, national origin, ability, age, or political identity. The problem is that the idea of our democracy only works when … Continue reading Come and Meet Me in the Middle of the Air<\/span> →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[6,7,13,8,21,23,25,19],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/connietuttle.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/763"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/connietuttle.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/connietuttle.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/connietuttle.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/connietuttle.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=763"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"http:\/\/connietuttle.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/763\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":775,"href":"http:\/\/connietuttle.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/763\/revisions\/775"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/connietuttle.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=763"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/connietuttle.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=763"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/connietuttle.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=763"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}