The world according to Jon Stewart. (From his closing comments.) And now I'll shut up about the rally.
We hear every damned day about how fragile our country is, on the brink of catastrophe, torn by polarizing hate, and how it's a shame that we can't work together to get things done. The truth is, we do! We work together to get things done every damned day! ...
Most Americans don't live their lives solely as Democrats, Republicans, liberals or conservatives. Americans live their lives more as people that are just a little bit late for something they have to do. Often something they do not want to do! But they do it. Impossible things, every day, that are only made possible through the little, reasonable compromises we all make.
(With footage of lanes of slow-moving traffic playing on screens behind him, Stewart went on to build a metaphor based on the traffic merger at the Lincoln Tunnel between New York and New Jersey.)
Look on the screen. This is where we are, this is who we are. These cars. That's a schoolteacher who probably think his taxes are too high, he's going to work. There's another car, a woman with two small kids, can't really think about anything else right now... A lady's in the NRA, loves Oprah. There's another car, an investment banker, gay, also likes Oprah. Another car's a Latino carpenter; another car, a fundamentalist vacuum salesman. Atheist obstetrician. Mormon Jay-Z fan.
But this is us. Every one of the cars that you see is filled with individuals of strong belief, and principles they hold dear--often principles and beliefs in direct opposition to their fellow travelers'. And yet, these millions of cars must somehow find a way to squeeze, one by one, into a mile-long, 30-foot-wide tunnel, carved underneath a mighty river.
And they do it, concession by concession: you go, then I'll go. You go, then I'll go. You go, then I'll go. 'Oh my God--is that an NRA sticker on your car?' 'Is that an Obama sticker on your car?' It's okay--you go, then I go.
And sure, at some point, there will be a selfish jerk who zips up the shoulder, and cuts in at the last minute. But that individual is rare, and he is scorned, and he is not hired as an analyst!
Because we know, instinctively, as a people, that if we are to get through the darkness and back into the light, we have to work together. And the truth is there will always be darkness, and sometimes the light at the end of the tunnel isn't the promised land.
Sometimes, it's just New Jersey.
5 comments:
We watched the entire rally on TV and wished we could have been there.
What a brilliant post. You have spoken the truth and it is sad that there are people urging us against compromise and understanding.
Now let's explore something. Suppose everyone who came to that rally changed their party affiliation to INDEPENDENT in a show of force against the rhetorical stranglehold represented by the Ameican political landscape. Then, having so done, those 200,000 people now realize they cannot vote in primaries unless they are willing to continue to passively contribute to what is ostensibly a broken system. And if those 200,000 attendees were willing to collectively speak in favor of allowing independents to vote in primaries, you'd really be restoring some sanity.
Thanks for posting that, Pam. And truly, that jerk zipping up the shoulder is just as likely to have an Obama sticker as a tea party one. I forget that sometimes.
I watched the entire rally on t.v. The next day Stewarts last words were printed in the local paper so I cut them out for safe keeping. I wish I had been there.
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