Portraits for the Future

Even though I am a student of history, I tend to approach real life in the future tense, not the past tense. I want to find the good in people and situations. And I'm much more of a “working together for the common good” kind of guy than a “I've got mine so **** you” kind of guy.

So as this new world unfolds, we have the opportunity to watch how we respond to personal and economic trauma of historic proportions. Our character – as a society but, more importantly, as individuals – will be revealed by the character of this response.

We've already seen the initial battles – almost, in some cases, literally – between opening and caution. We've seen those who rush toward the danger, risking everything to do what needs to be done, and we've seen those who try to profit from the madness and chaos. But there is no clear consensus. What will be our overriding message to the future?

A piece on NPR this morning sparked these thoughts. In Texas, as in many states, there has been a statewide 'no eviction' order, acknowledging the devastating effect of sudden job loss on millions of Texans. However, today that order ran out, and is not being renewed. Someone speaking from Houston – America's largest city without eviction protection – described a “tsunami of evictions” and the resulting crisis in homelessness that has been set in motion.

Aren't we better than this? Just askin.' We can drive a vehicle around Mars, sequence the human genome, create astounding virtual worlds, transplant bone marrow that wiped leukemia right out of my sister-in-law's bloodstream. We can find ways to shovel ever-increasing billions to an ever-shrinking group of the usual suspects.

Can we find a way to help each other – every one of us – through this crisis, without devastating trauma and with some modicum of respect and hope? What we do now will be a portrait we paint for our grandchildren to interpret. What do we want that portrait to look like – the dark and condescending portraits from the past, projecting wealth and arrogance, or the portrait of Michelle Obama which so delighted and inspired a little girl who will grow up to mold the world of her generation?

On the radio yesterday, we heard of a corporation who reported that they couldn't help people in trouble because that might require them to lower the dividends they paid to their investors.

It almost seems like we're not all in this together.

End of rant, I guess. Maybe not.