healing

I liked elements of this column by the Washington Post’s Donna Britt:

In a nation divided, demonizing the ‘other’ — whether an antiabortion Republican or a war-despising Democrat — deepens the rift. Those who automatically judge political opponents as evil, stupid or ‘un-American’ aren’t just wrong. They’re part of the problem. Those who fear strengthened Republican majorities should recognize their humanity — and find creative, authentic ways to appeal to it. Those frustrated by the rank, often selfish fears that spurred some to vote Republican must do better at dismantling them. Confronting issues that tempt both sides’ rigidity — abortion, gay rights, the environment, the war — we must learn to hear the ‘other’s’ heartfelt points of view.

We must explain, then defend our views — not to a backward ‘enemy,’ but to fellow citizens whose humanity we can engage.

Also this story by the WP’s David Finkel was a fair-minded, sympathetic portrayal of an Ohio working-poor, white-evangelical Bush voter:

“It’s really good to know our country had a decision to make, and there are so many people who feel this way,” Cary says. “It’s a victory for people like us.”
…
Forty hours a week at the car-rental counter, 12 hours a week running pizzas, the pinch of gasoline at $2 a gallon, savings drained, the realization that he and Tara are “kind of the working poor” — and still it was moral concerns, rather than economic ones, that guided both of them on Election Day.
“I don’t blame President Bush for anything that’s happened with my income,” Cary says. Rather, he looks at Bush as someone who believes in “personal responsibility,” which Cary believes in as well. Don’t complain. Solve. “There are jobs out there,” he says, and as tired as he might be on Saturday night as he drives the streets of northern Ohio, he can use that time to listen to worship tapes, to think, to pray and to remind himself of what the priorities of a good life should be.
“Jobs will come and go. But your character — you have to hang on to that,” he says. “It’s what you’re defined by.”
“It’s been rough. Very rough. I mean scraping by,” Tara says. But “to us, the biggest things were the moral things.”