So I had some guys doing work around my house today and one casually asked what I was doing on the computer. Me being me, I took it as an opening to talk politics and replied “watching my country fall apart”. And then a most heartening conversation ensued.
To say the two men getting my outside storage shed up to scratch weren’t avid followers of politics would be an understatement. Clinton was referred to as “that woman” at least once and not in a pejorative sense. She was called that simply because as a thought was being expressed, her name didn’t come to mind. I didn’t ask but it seemed logical that the people I was talking to were members of the half of America that didn’t (and never) vote.
We laugh about it here but one of the first things said was that Obama was a Muslim. I was immediately thankful that over years of being a woman in business, schooling my face has become second nature. The three of us explored the idea for a while and then decided that no, he probably wasn’t. That was something that “they” put out to diminish him. I didn’t bring up “they”, try to define who that might be or what the motives were. To do anything but listen and occasionally contribute seemed counterproductive given the course of the conversation.
There was no exploration required, however, when it came to Trump being evil. Universal agreement was immediate. People I least expected to hear it from thought he was the pits. That he was cruel. That he was a rich man who had never known a day of suffering and had no idea what it meant to be poor. No idea what it meant to fear. No idea what it meant to hurt. That he wasn’t going to make America better.
Today, I talked to some of the least engaged in our political system and found common ground when I expected none.
For me, that made today a good one.
Stay angry but reach out. Consider all doors open. Find common ground.
Because as “that woman” said, we really are #StrongerTogether