Thinking about things

I read a tweet this morning that really got me thinking.  The tweet referenced Joe Kennedy's appearance on the Colbert show, where he shared stories of Americans helping other Americans.

The tweeter pointed out that while those stories were nice, what would really be nice would be if America had a robust social safety net system so that people wouldn't need extraordinary acts of kindness to survive.

I want to make perfectly clear that I believe in social safety nets.  I think that any civilized society is only as healthy as the systems it has to care for its most vulnerable citizens.  I am a huge believer in a living minimum wage, universal health care, free public education to employment, elder care and youth care systems so that no one goes uncared for or hungry.

That being said, even if the very best social support systems are in place, there is still a need for compassion and generosity at the person to person level.

Unfortunately, many people on the tweet thread could only see either how sad it is that America's social support systems are woefully inadequate, or that it shouldn't ever be the government's job to provide social safety nets.

It makes me sad that it seems like so many people seek the extremes instead of the center.

In the center, you have great social safety nets, but you celebrate the wonderful generous people who supplement them.

You celebrate the people who volunteer as class mothers and fathers, and who chaperone field trips and dances.    You celebrate the volunteer coaches.  You celebrate the foster parents.  You celebrate the couple who stops to help the young mother change a tire.  You celebrate the woman who offers to hold a baby so that the mother can manage a melting down toddler in the store.

I worry that America is dying.  I know that many others do too.  If I am going to have the energy to try to save my country, I need to believe that there are people in it worth saving.

That is what the stories of ordinary Americans doing extraordinary things for other Americans does for me.  It gives me the energy to keep trying to make America a good country for all of its citizens.

If the only voices I hear are the loud and hateful voices on social media, I might throw up my hands and pray for a happy death for this nation.

So, I will keep fighting for a better America with the kind of social support systems that I think are the hallmarks of a great civilization.

And I will continue to recognize and celebrate the extraordinary acts of kindness by ordinary people that make America worth fighting for.