Like many people, I have found this past year to be one of great societal stress. Our children seem under constant attack at schools nationwide and political tension continues to drive us apart.
For many, our political tension stays at the debate table and within our social media feeds. However, more recently we have seen our disagreements boil over into violent action.
Those identifying with President Donald Trump or the wider Republican Party watched your champion suffer two assassination attempts. Likewise, those aligned with the Democratic Party watched two public servants confront the threat and reality of death in Minnesota.
Even those operating outside the two-party system have felt the weight of these events, and the recent assassination of Charlie Kirk is the most recent example.
These events have built a political firestorm, forcing us to confront the growing reality of political violence and division in the U.S. today.
Unfortunately, this storm has found us because of how we view politics. We have constrained our minds to a binary left- and right-wing system. It has pushed us to view each other as more adversarial over the years, and it eats away at our democracy.
Politics is not an environment of simple right and wrong. It is a complex environment of tradeoffs. If you wish to enact immigrant deportations, you must accept that families are likely to be torn apart and worlds uprooted.
Conversely, if you choose to loosen immigration restrictions, you must accept the possibility that an unsustainable number of people may enter the country and weigh down local economies. There is no perfect political end-state and, by extension, there is no perfect political figure.
This imperfect nature is why we cannot demonize those with whom we disagree. We must recognize that the rationale used to justify or celebrate political violence can be used on any person with an opinion. None of us are exempt, including the supporters of violence.
You and I may firmly disagree on most things. However, what I value more than my political opinion is you and your position as someone’s parent, child, sibling and fellow human. We are neighbors, more similar than we are different.
The joy and support you provide others and our society is infinitely more important than what we think of one another.
Wrath will tear us apart if we let it, so we must not succumb to its divisive nature. To form a more perfect union, we must recognize that blending our opposing views is the necessary tradeoff for the most equitable future. We will never agree on everything, but siloed thought is a path toward stagnation, division and ultimately regression.
We must seize this opportunity to forgive each other for how we got here and to humanize our neighbors. Simply denouncing violence is not enough.
If we do not start to forgive and blend our views, I fear our spiral will grow irreversible and we will wake up with our land of opportunity having perished from the earth.
