Bill Dawson: Change in focus is needed to break the deadlock

To The Daily Sun,

Sorely needed, at this juncture in our history, is a change in focus. It needs to happen although it will be painful for those who enjoy their comfort and elevated station in life.  There is a conflict between evident need and fear of losing position.

Here we are, more or less evenly divided, as we have been for about 20 years. Deadlocked, or nearly so, with the virus becoming just another issue that we can’t agree on well enough to effect a solution.  

A further complication would appear to be occurring in the Republican party.  Some of the older and wiser members of the party are choosing to retire rather than be abused for any attempts to compromise with their Democratic counterparts.  There is apparently an attempt to rebuild the Republican party by attacking the Voting Rights Act by trying to pass legislation at the state level which is designed to weaken the language of the federal law.  States rights, not a new approach, is being used to manipulate voting regulations at the precinct level.  Segregation and absence of equal access to places of businesses were, until recently, a fact of life in the “Old South.”

There is a message from the past that I found in a forgotten text published about two decades ago. It was, “21 Debated Issues in World Politics.” One of the contributors was Arthur M. Schlesinger Jr. His piece posed the question, “Has Democracy a Future?” His answer was pretty stark. In as few words as I can boil it down to he essentially said, “If we fail to construct a humane, prosperous, and peaceful world, it will invite alternative creeds.”  Is what happened on Jan. 6 evidence of the failure Arthur was talking about?

Yet another sign that we are failing is the unrest in the minority communities evident during the Trump administration. As W.E.B Du Bois observed about a hundred years ago, “Minorities seek full membership with all the rights and privileges due as citizens.”

As I see it, the time for demagoguery, egomania, insult, and hate need to come to a full stop. Our congressional representatives, our state governments, and the courts need to apply a fairness test to their actions. If it looks like fascist behavior, then it probably is what it appears to be.

Bill Dawson

Northfield