Wednesday, March 8, 2017

Whose Story Is This Anyway?


If countries, like people, live to imagine and compose a narrative arc by which we live and act, then it is time again to claim the authority to write the story of America that rings most true. The narrative of my America veers toward openness and experimentation, connection and interdependence, opportunity and inclusivity, restraint, stewardship, and responsibility when necessary, generosity and hard work. I find the narrative of fear, of serving only the interests of the wealthy and powerful and, yes, white, to be a story of compression rather than expansion. Tax cuts for the haves, deregulation, and short-term, environmentally blind development do not tell my story of what my America might be as we move into a future world populated by a world of nine billion other storytellers. What works best for most of us? How do we imagine ourselves as heroes of our bigger story, the one that calls us to stretch and give?

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