Coonridge Digest: We Became One

Greetin’s from the Ridge.

I guess nobody really likes change. Even a new car has its disadvantages as you spend a week discoverin’ where they put the radio knobs on this year’s model. This week we’ve gotten the first whiff of the winds of change as the twin towers of the World Trade Center continued to crash down every hour on the hour. Tragedy beyond our imagining, suffering beyond adequate description. We’d just catch our breath and again the towers would begin tumbling down.

The issue consumed every corner of our lives…our local news as well as the national, sports, advertising, our worship, and it hung like a cloud over every conversation. No matter what the subject, the sight of those towers clouded everything we said and did. As the week wore on we began to see other towers tumble.

Most of us have grown up in an American divided along the lines of class, race, ethnic background and just plain geography…we are a big nation. Last week the Tower of Divisiveness came crashin’ down and maybe for the first time since Pearl Harbor or Kennedy’s death, we became one.

An Irish member of the British Parliament stood to address the speaker last Friday mornin’. He said, "I was educated in Indiana and I’ve spent the last twenty years traveling to the West and East Coast of America.

It’s always been a sadness to see such a wonderful nation so severely split along geographical lines. One part of the country always felt so sorely separated from another. Today in speaking with my American friends, I can see but one nation, undivided." The Tower of Divisiveness came down last week.

More crashin’ occurred as the ugly week wore on. In Washington the Twin Towers of Partisanship and Self-Interest came tumblin’ down. Oh sure, such temptin’ structures can be quickly built again when times seem more bearable but at least for that shinin’ moment Republicans and Democrats became one in purpose and resolution. President Bush became everyone’s President. The flag belonged to us all. Sadly, these will be the first towers to be rebuilt, but until self-gratification gets its construction crew under way, it’s been nice to see how things might be if we only cared for the common good.

And far away from the artificial world of Washington, the Towers of Self-Interest continued to topple. I sat in my first fuel-pump line in many years. No anger. No shouting. Just a bit of fear and confusion. The schoolchildren of America rallied behind their terrified peers in New York and Washington with all manner of fund drives as their parents flooded the Red Cross with a tidal wave of donated blood.

Last week everyone became a patriot. Even the baby-boomers raised on a diet of Viet Nam and governmental truth bending began displayin’ flags in their windshields and purple ribbons on their lapels. It’s been one of the great regrets of my life to know a generation of Americans in their 20’s. 30’s and 40’s who care nothing for world affairs, who regularly tune in to re-runs of Seinfeld to avoid watchin’ the 5:30 news, and who don’t know we’re in a crisis until the price of their bread and milk go up a nickel. Last week they saw the towers fall and the Tower of Complacency began to shake.

And the Parochial Tower took a good beatin’ in these past terrifyin’ days. The word "global" became more than an internet address as our nation got its first real taste of what the Belfast mother and the Palestinian father have felt for years. We became a nation of the world as we tasted it sufferings.

I think that maybe the most welcome tower-tumble can still be heard rumblin’ as politicians are forced to speak in clear and meaningful terms. Words again have meaning as the Tower of Babel begins to crumble.

Some towers were too formidable and they survived even the terrorist attacks. The Tower of Hate only took a few glancing nicks as Americans of Mid-Eastern backgrounds were singled out for harassment and abuse.

The Tower of Retribution was fortified, rightly so accordin’ to many, but with frightenin’ foundations. The Tower of Reason suffered a great deal of structural damage and the verdict is still out.

When I was a youngster, our neighbor went to tear down an old house he’d purchased. He’d just bought the place to clean up the neighborhood, as the old house had become an eyesore. As he and his son began tearin’ away boards and plaster they discovered the house had been built around a yet older structure. As more planks and shingles got thrown into the yard a lovely old log cabin began to emerge, more carefully built and far more precious than the later structure. It’s now the showplace of the village.

We can manage as much. As the towers of Self-Interest and Complacency tumble around us, there truly are treasures to be discovered. Older, timeworn yet strong, and ever, ever more precious.

You ever in Coonridge, stop by. We may not answer the door, but you’ll enjoy the trip.