I was taken aback this past week, pulling up to one of the most dilapidated and blighted intersections in downtown Baltimore, to catch a glimpse of what I believe to have been a Great Blue Heron, soaring majestically along a local river. Knowing where s/he was going, this determined traveler tuned out what was surely unsightly to such discerning eyes and beat her wings unhurriedly, but powerfully, along.

While I realize it is probably possible to take the analogy too far, I believe it is relevant to consider that one of the most recognizable symbols of our Republic is a majestic bird. Our country was founded on principles of freedom and equality – universal ideas defended by two essential and distinct – but mutually maligned – parties today. If these ideals are our wings, we all constitute the mediating body.

In studying and teaching mediation, I have noted that one of the most essential practices of the discipline is the acknowledgement of different points of view. Both articulation and acknowledgement, usually in the form of audible rewording, are essential to reconciliation.

On Dissent

Everyone wants to know they are heard; and to frame any complex issue as being only about freedom or only about equality is not just harmfully expedient but inconsiderate. Speaking practically, while it is one thing to genuinely disagree with the points being made by nurturers and protectors with regard to vaccination, it is hardly helpful to simplify or ignore them.

As a person who has felt not just individually guarded but galvanized by the heroism expressed so meaningfully twenty years ago last month, I feel appalled when firefighters in particular are denegrated. These are not men who are callous – or even oblivious – about the safety of others; they are, on the contrary, particularly sensitive and absolutely must be heard in fulfillment of what is arguably an important, and even basic, need.

What if the mediation principle of paraphrasing could be applied in their case?

While I did not watch the event in its entirety, I did watch a clip of our President – a good man who clearly made many very good points – recently refer to the positions of the vaccine hesitant as being akin to a desire to harm. One reason, respectfully speaking, a mocking paraphrase is arguably unhelpful is that it further drives a wedge between would-be partners.

It at least seems to me that both vaccine advocates and mandate opponents today are pressing for practically the same thing – equal access to safety for all. By this I mean that advocates seem to be pointing out that there is a need for being considerate of older generations; and mandate opponents seem to be pointing out that there is a need for being considerate of younger generations by avoiding setting a precedent that could be harmful to them unless biological weapons proliferation is brought under control. My understanding is that their position is that vaccine refusal today feels like their only leverage in insisting that this matter become a priority closer to the forefront of American policy-making. Put more plainly, they, too, seek to save lives.

Nurturers and protectors who do not want bad actors with histories of slaughtering their own people to have the option of releasing poison into the air in the future anytime they want the entire world to feel compelled to line up for government-mandated shots should be listened to, when appropriate, I believe. Perhaps they would be more willing to comply in the present if their worries about the future were simply acknowledged.

With regard to the recent, shameful, protest-turned-riot at the U.S. Capitol, I believe reconciliation would be more difficult, but, possible. While many protestors, including all trespassers, were clearly 100% in the wrong (some even carried confederate flags, and it goes without saying rioters were criminals), many do seem to have been acting in obedience to conscience. (There were also American flags everywhere.)

I believe that the well-meaning, who are understandably concerned about a dearth of public figures willing to hold an increasingly conglomerated media sector accountable; a seemingly more demure posture abroad, an overly-simplified, but certainly overdue, discourse on race; and a feeling of invisibility could perhaps more sensitively acknowledge their counterparts’ similar feelings, recognize the origins of the New York Times’ recent editorial project, and more deeply consider the obvious possibility that the American confederacy was never fully eradicated, but, rather, only appeased.

On Derivation

While I realize I am biased, I do believe the catalyst for so much animosity seeming to proliferate publicly – even as some people’s lives surely improve privately – today is a totally unchecked and increasingly conglomerate media bloc. Just as so much dissonance seemed to stem from a failure to hold Wall Street accountable more than a decade ago, only to allow the virus of short-term profit- and power-seeking at all costs to spread from the financial sector to another form of banks for public trust – media corporations, I believe there is simply a hunger for reckoning.

What made appeasement of the media sector arguably a million times worse than the financial bailout was that a requirement for problem-solving – our means to communicate with one another – seems to have been hijacked in the process.

On Foreign Bodies

I have written at length about what I at least perceive to be a need to ponder structural, and not only compositional, remedies and, by this, I mean an audit of the effects of non-constitutional but pseudo-governmental pillars of our government, such as stock market and media forces, particularly where these overlap. Increasingly, it is as if we are complaining about a backache and talking about spinal surgery without considering the effect of two fifty-pound cosmetic implants no one wants to address.

There is nothing wrong with the bones of our country, although we have muscles that must be exercised now to prevent atrophy in my view.

On Marrow

We are in a moment threatened by such a wave of uncreativity that some seem intent on repeating what were arguably not always intentional errors of the past on purpose.

Experiences of racism – which must be addressed soberly, openly, and in a way that leads to resolution – notwithstanding, only time will tell when and – and if – we are able to overcome the shock of recent revelations that the monarchy is hierarchical or that it is possible to write anything on a ballgown. I believe our Union may need to more actively make a priority of rejecting trickle-down social justice to thrive in a maturing world.

On Resolve

The good news is that this democracy of ours – this vehicle – has more than two gears. We do not need to toggle between kowtowing to foreign powers and treating one another with mercilessness.

There has been considerable discussion in recent years about a legitimate & continued need to root out bullying – in schools, in politics, and in interpersonal relationships – but should this not involve an increase in – and not a phase-out of – compassionate accountability?

Regardless of how our surroundings change, and our responses adapt, we stay the same at the core.

Driving downtown again yesterday, I couldn’t help but feel a sense of literal awe at all of the artifacts around me of ingenuity, hard work, creativity, and dedication expressed in a long-standing firehouse, in closely-packed (and beautiful) row homes, and cobblestone streets. We are stewards of a rich and valuable heritage, and it is time to identify a mindset that would throw the proverbial baby of our still-nascent democracy out with foul bathwater as the imposter it is.

One of the many enormous benefits of the African American rights movement has been a firm assertion that a constituency that has been woefully marginalized historically must be heard. Additional (and overlapping) constituencies to which I believe all should also pause and listen today are our country’s nurturers and protectors who are simply acknowledging – out loud – that the notion that it’s “time’s up” for our Union is not held by all.

Watching their moves is, for me at least, not unlike watching the heron, following her course regardless of the blight and ruin below, remembering there are those who are counting on her.