Page 134 - https://downmagaz.net

Just as vigorously, those triggered by the tumult

tell an impassioned story of order, calm and the

right to be safe in one’s home and one’s business

— something central to the American story right

back to the first settlers.

For the moment, these different stories seem

utterly irreconcilable.

Many are not primed to hear their fellow

Americans’ stories right now. Polarization

was already impeding things. Then came the

pandemic’s existential threat. And now, the

oldest of contentious American storylines —

race — has taken a lead role.

How does one forge shared a sense of purpose

out of this? How do Americans reassemble the

portrait from its fragments?

“We can’t exist as a thousand little pieces,” Davé

says. “We all want to believe in this story — that

we all are created equal and have the right to

pursue life, liberty, justice and happiness. Those

are values that we all cling to. The journey to

get there, that becomes what we’ve struggled

against in history and what we’re struggling

against now.”

It is clear that the 20th-century edition of the

American story no longer works. But in this

country of stories, not having one won’t work

either. Does a nation cease to exist when its

foundational story breaks apart, when those

who tell that story are saying different things?

On the night before he was assassinated in 1968,

the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. summoned the

story he believed had been promised to him and

his compatriots: “All we say to America is, `Be

true to what you said on paper.’”

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