There is something engaging about numbers. When ideas are represented by many, these ideas demand and deserve to be heard. When we see large numbers of humans out in the streets protesting, marching to a single drum, we cannot help but look and listen.
But many would dismiss this collective action as being simply many ideas mixed amongst many disgruntled fellow beings. And some of this must be true. People respond to a public gathering in a variety of ways, and hope to air their grievance to the big eye watching. And they are anxiously watching.
Not one voice and one view, but many voices, sharing the common ground of humanity.
The big eye must come down from the top floor peering through the shades, where they have spent their time since the restlessness of the working man first stirred in the streets below. Those same leaders, driven by the greed that is part of a culture passing by, and not the primary characteristic of the human condition, who have led us to the edge, need to step off and ride their parachute down. Forget them, there’s work to do.
Many folks are under the illusion that we can patch things up, pile on some regulations, print out some stimulus, and things will go back to what we knew, what we are comfortable with. A wait and hope strategy will only prolong the inevitable, and cause us to selfishly pull back what’s ours, rather than extend a hand.
The great American experiment has thrived best when facing a cause or challenge. Think about our short history. This is such a rich opportunity to stop pretending how great it is to be an American, based on the soil we spilled out upon at birth, and actually become one.
Think about it, talk about it, and then step into the march.
Or perhaps not.
djs