How are we supposed to push for unity if the other side won’t listen?

US democracy is smoldering. Our very state of being is in question. We’re facing a reckoning.

I’d argue that the reckoning is necessary. This land on which we live has served as a vehicle of oppression for centuries. In late spring of 2020, an anti-racist movement finally started to take hold. I, a white man, recognize that I have unconscious biases. I have been trying to unlearn what was installed in me, and that simply by being a white man, I have been afforded privilege.

It’s hard. I’m ashamed and exhausted. Yet, comparably, I’ve had it easy. Beyond easy, really.

You’ll find the news on my tv almost daily. No, it’s not always CNN or MSNBC. Occasionally, I’ll flip to Fox to see what’s happening there. Because of that, I would consider myself to be pretty well informed. There’s an understanding of what’s good for people, and what’s not. Sure, my opinions of that good may be different than others, but that doesn’t make mine or anothers’ invalid. At least not at a base level.

The problem we’re currently facing however, is there is such a high level of apathy that exists within this country, that it makes me wonder what percentage of white people actually understand what empathy is. So, with that in mind, please indulge me for a moment.

How are we supposed to call for unity when we’ve watched so many people willfully harm others? There’s something fundamentally wrong with that. If you’re calling for unity, and the coming together of the “far left” and “far right”, your logic is flawed. In order to unify, one must reflect on themselves and empathize with others.

Do you think these white supremacist insurrectionists have even an ounce of empathy? No. They don’t.

Look, if you’re my friend, and we have a disagreement as to how we should do something, that’s fine. However if that disagreement leads to genuine harm to others and their way of life? That’s not civil discourse.

We must root out the evils that so many wish to keep fanning. In order to truly unify, Republicans who don’t believe in the rhetoric of the current President and his supporters must speak up. If we don’t remove the cancer that is growing within our nation, we can’t bring unity to anything.

But, after more than a week of fear and loathing, many within Congress are more concerned with the fact that metal detectors have been installed in the Capitol building than they are with the reason they exist in the first place. It’s not unlike the way many on the right have looked at school shootings.

How many kids need to walk through metal detectors when walking into a place that’s supposed to be safe? A space that exists for the betterment of their future. Where they now have to learn how to shelter in place and barricade themselves in for their own safety during active shooter drills as well as reading, writing, and arithmetic.

During the debates on the floor of the House of Representatives this week, I’ve seen many Congresspeople on the right attack those on the left. And vice versa, sure. However the difference here is that the right is saying the left stood by and watched as riots swept the country in the summer. They are equating peaceful protests in support of Black lives to a riotous mob who chanted “Hang Mike Pence” while storming the United States Capitol.

Those could not be further from the same thing. Unity is not possible until we root out that hateful rhetoric and action.

Every single person who stormed the US Capitol should be convicted and jailed.

Every member of law enforcement and Congress who helped aid the insurrection, or stoked the flames that caused it, should be removed, convicted, and jailed.

The current President of the United States should be removed from office, convicted, and jailed for inciting this white supremacist mob.

Until we do those three things, we cannot have unity.

Because those who are calling for unity, but are also equating Black Lives Matter and white supremacist insurrection, are not looking for unity. They’re looking for the flames to die down so they can slink back into the shadows until a time comes during which they can leap out of the bushes wearing their hoods again.

We can’t sweep our issues under the rug. That doesn’t solve anything. It simply continues to make it “somebody else’s problem” when that rug gets pulled up. And what lies beneath it is ugly. So we must sweep it up and dispose of it. Then, and only then, can we have genuine civil discourse over the idea of a unified nation.