An introduction to our cause

Dear Michigan, 

I wanted to start this blog because I love this state.  I believe that this state has the potential to be everything the American dream can promise.  I believe that we have the most beautiful land in the country, land that needs our protection.  We are a state that is home to wonderfully diverse groups of people living passionately, and that is wonderful, but sometimes makes it difficult to feel unified.  Though we have a hundred ways to speak today, sometimes it is hard to feel like our voices are being heard or to feel like they make a difference.  As I watched the election coverage, I was fascinated by Michigan's sudden rise to the spotlight, and the obvious division among my neighbors.

As we seek to understand the ever unfolding events and implications of this presidential election season, I want you to know that I'm sorry for the days when I did not listen, for this days when I was blinded by my own passions and desire to heal the world, to heal it in the ways that I think it needs healing.  I am sorry for believing that there could only be one solution and contributing to the divides between us.  It is uncertain what can be changed at anytime soon at the national level, but maybe if we being to listen to each other as neighbors, we can begin to make changes here.  It is the streets of our cities where we may feel unsafe, where we carry out our daily tasks, seek jobs and seek community.  It is our street corners and our grocery stores where the fast changing world meets us face to face.  

Our information about the world beyond what we see comes from dozens of people who claim to be truth-tellers, but we wonder how two truth tellers can proclaim two different truths.  Our mind seeks to reconcile these truths and chooses the one it feels most comfortable with, the one that makes us feel the safest.  Meanwhile, as we hold our truth, the world around us proclaims a million others and we become withdrawn, hardened and defensive.  The color and vibrancy of life drains away, leaving and black and white image with few shades of gray.   Here we stand on opposite sides of the same picture one proclaiming “Duck!” and the other “Rabbit!”

The problem is, neither one of is wrong, and we are both right.  

We fixate on trees and forests, and not the path we are walking.  

We are in a strange place, Michigan.  But in that place, we have the chance to create something new and wonderful.  

What I ask is this, sit with your anger, and sit with your pain.  Ask yourself what is the change you seek?  When you think you have found the answer sit with it again, and again, until you can express it without venom, without malice, and without blame.  We know those things make it difficult for your audience to hear you, and we are all guilty of them.  Blame is not productive, it is another wedge in the wounds of the unheard, of the lost, disheartened and disenchanted.   When you can say what you want to see, write your own “Dear Michigan” letter.  Send it to me at togethermichigan@gmail.com.   It doesn’t have to be long, but as we bring our voices together, I think we will find that we have more in common than we thought.  Here is my first.  

Dear Michigan, 

I would like to live in a place where everyone has access to clean, safe drinking water.  

I would like to live in a place where all marriages are recognized and protected as equal.  

I would like to live in a place where immigrants, non-English speakers, non-Christians, people who identify as LGBTQ+, people who seem a little different, Christians, women, and children can live free from fear of violence or persecution.