​People are people, but they’re powerful in numbers

By Sabrina Hornung

sabina@hpr1.com

I scroll through comment threads on the news stories in my social media feed and come across the retort, “You voted for this.” Sure the vote’s in…but when someone’s livelihood is at stake, rubbing their nose in it won’t help. If we’re trying to exercise our moral superiority, maybe the correct approach would be some mild bit of empathy. Or, of course, you can just scroll on.

We live in North Dakota, folks voting against their own best interests is nothing new — which is tragic. How do we work together and fix that? Another part of me wonders if they’ll ever learn.

Leave getting the last word to the eight year olds, dude — we have bigger fish to fry. Americans need to get over their juvenile pedantics and come together on what we agree on and build from there. The further we stand divided, the further we are from agreeing on any kind of solution.

America’s supposed to be a melting pot, not a bucket full of crabs pulling each other down until no one sees daylight. I don’t know what the remedy is, but maybe it would help if we took a break on the politics and talked about policy. We’d get a little further and have some much less frustrating discourse getting down to the real brass tacks.

What matters most to us? How can we work together and have some worthwhile conversations? We need to talk to each other, we need to share our stories and ideas. Story sharing is an empathy builder. We need to show each other that we’re human again.

Don’t forget to reach out to our delegation and share how legislation affects you. There’s a housing crisis, a healthcare crisis, an environmental crisis, an ag crisis... If we’re taking Maslow’s hierarchy of needs into consideration, our basic human needs are directly under attack, all while the orange Nero oversees the construction of a grand, $300 million ballroom as our country tries to keep it together.

At least Nero could play a fiddle. Instead, Trump is just playing America like a fiddle with a Kid Rock soundtrack in the background. Though the number of Americans baa-ing wit da ballroom (that’s a sheep/Kid Rock joke, in case you’re wondering) compared with the number of Americans that were outraged about Cracker Barrel changing their logo is laughable and cryable at the same time.

Personally, I’m more mad about the new Taco John’s logo. They didn’t even capitalize the T or the J. But I digress…

How did America get to the point where it’s more reactive toward a corporate rebrand than real issues that affect our livelihoods? Are we at the point where society is more receptive to logos instead of actual issues? Could it be another weapon of mass distraction?

Or is anger and fear addictive, and that’s why conservative commentators bent themselves out of shape by overanalyzing a rebrand? If they’re comparing the loss of history to a rebrand, we’re really grasping for straws here and there’s a lot more to unpack. Then again, we live in a timeline where a reality star was elected President twice and our newsreel is reading like a poorly written reality show.

We have boundless information at our fingertips and we’re not even bothering to fact check or discern propaganda from truth that’s thrown our way. According to UVA.edu, one third of Americans can’t discern fake political headlines from the real ones, which is alarming.

To quote “Star Wars” (or, more specifically, Yoda from “Star Wars”), “Fear is the path to the dark side. Fear leads to anger. Anger leads to hate. Hate leads to suffering.”

We need to get out and talk to each other. We need to unplug and stop fueling the fire. Division is a tactic. If we don’t talk to each other, we don’t work together and then we can’t find a better deal. Don’t pledge allegiance to a party — these people work for us. Look at the issues, understand the issues and organize. If we unite our voices, we’ll create more noise.

Don’t know where to start? Start on the local level. Donate, volunteer, write letters, write editorials or letters to the editor and get involved. Start with us and email sabrina@hpr1.com. We’re a community mouthpiece and we’re here to amplify the voices in our community.

Talk to your neighbors, collect stories and tell your story. People are powerful in numbers; that’s why they’re trying to divide us. Let’s try to find some common ground and work together. We don’t all have to suffer.