March 24, 2009 08:21 PM UTC

The Big Picture

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• by: Steve Harvey

What is your vision for the future, of your community, of the state, of the nation, and of the world? How do you think we collectively can get there? What do you think each of us can do individually to contribute to that enterprise? Why do you believe it is the right vision to pursue?

Amid the partisan bickering, the zingers and personal attacks, the ideological convictions and counter-convictions, the mutual misrepresentations of what each other has said, and the exploration of the personalities and minutia of the political landscape, we sometimes should take a moment to step back and ask ourselves what we think our long term goals should be, and by what means we can arrive at them.

These are my questions for you, collectively:

What are we (each of us) trying to accomplish through participating in political discourse, and political action? What is the ideal toward which we are striving? Are some of us striving against the changes that others urge, considering what is preferable to what might be?

What is your vision for the future, and how do you think we, collectively, can get there?

My first submission to the discussion is an excerpt from my last post to the lively exchange on private gun ownership, in which I begin to outline my answers to the above questions:

I’d like to apologize to everyone involved for anything I said that appeared personally insulting or “holier than thou.” I don’t think that’s who I really am, but maybe that’s what comes across in this medium of communication. At a certain point, early in the exchange, I simply felt pummelled from all sides, and simultaneously knew and know (whether rightly or wrongly is something others can decide for themselves) that reason and evidence are unambiguous on this matter. That’s an uncomfortable position to be in.

In a way, I guess this is my “pro-life” position, both literally and figuratively. We are a violent society. That’s simply a fact, one which is well born out by the statistics. I very strongly believe that it is one of our most pressing responsibilities to try to become a less violent society. It is clearly an attainable goal, because others have attained it. In fact, we stand alone among developed nations in how poorly we have managed to address the issue of violence.

The gun culture is not the only nor the causal element in this endemic violence of ours, but it is one thread in the tapestry, a tapestry I would like to see us dedicate ourselves to unravelling and reweaving. To do so, we have to pull on those threads that we can.

I will continue to argue passionately for this agenda. I will hope that an increasing number of people will see the wisdom of it. But I will strive with everyone who wants to, gun advocate or opponent, to continue to create a more peaceful, more humane, more eddifying and enriching and joyful society, one in which we spend our lives exploring life’s wonders, and do our best to minimize those dynamics which intrude upon our ability to do so.

Realism and idealism are not incompatable: We must recognize reality, in order constantly to improve it.