We need to work together

Late Saturday afternoon, I was putting away our utility trailer. We had used it to move a washing machine and dryer that we installed in our son’s home on their farm. The trailer is stored under a roof overhang on the north side of the barn. Although there is a large concrete pad where the trailer goes, the concrete on the west side of the barn is narrower and the corner is a bit tight. At the end of a long day of working, I got a bit lazy and instead of backing the trailer around the corner, which is what I should have done, I headed out forward, intending to pull out onto the open field and back the trailer into its place.

I should have known better. I knew that the ground was saturated with water from recent rains. I knew that it likely had soft spots. In less time than it has taken for me to write these few words of description, I had my 4-wheel-drive pickup stuck with the front wheels dug in deep enough that the front differential was sitting on the ground. I knew I needed help. I knew that the two other vehicles on the place wouldn’t work to pull my pickup out.

The solution to the problem was like many other problems on the farm. A phone call to a neighbor brought his pickup over. He backed up on the concrete. I attached a tow strap that I had for such occasions and within a few minutes my pickup was back on solid ground. As I unhooked the tow strap and rolled it up to put it back in storage, the neighbor jumped out of his pickup, introduced himself to me. He previously knew our son because he had hayed the big pasture on the farm this summer, but we had not yet met. We shook hands and he headed off with my genuine thanks.

It was a normal activity. It is what neighbors do for one another. It is what I have done for lots of others and I would not hesitate to do for one of the neighbors on the farm.

There is another detail about that brief event. The neighbor had at least three Trump bumper stickers on his truck and at least three more that were rather crude in their criticism of the current President of the United States. When he hopped out of his truck after towing me out of the mud he was wearing a bright read MAGA hat. I’m not very big on bumper stickers, but I happened to have two small ones on the bumper of my pickup: one saying, “A great city deserves a great library,” and another promoting keeping boats clean to avoid transporting invasive species. However, there is no way that the neighbor was unaware that our son and his family have very different political opinions than he does. After all, they have painted rainbow colors on a sign that is easily seen from the road. And I’m willing to bet that the MAGA hat-wearing neighbor didn’t vote for the library district bond issue that is promoted by the sign at the end of our son’s driveway. That issue is currently causing a lot of debate in our county as it will appear in a special election in February after falling just 26 votes shy of a needed super majority in November. Although our son is a librarian, the vote is for a different district than the one where he is the director.

People don’t have to agree about politics in order to be kind and neighborly. I’ve known this for a very long time. I’ve served congregations where there are major differences in political viewpoints of the members. I’ve worked shoulder to shoulder with folks whose votes are consistently the opposite of mine. It is the way I think our community should be. But in recent years, communities and families have been torn apart by polarized politics. Shouting matches have turned violent. People brandished weapons in the United States Capitol less than a year ago. Emotions over politics are high. I’m sure our helpful neighbor wore his MAGA hat on purpose. He wanted me to know that the guy helping me was a Trump supporter.

It gave me pause to remember something that has been said in the aftermath of the devastating floods that have left huge swaths of destruction in our county. “What does it take to get people to act like neighbors? Water deep enough to cover up the yard signs.”

For a very long time the media have given large amounts of air time to the political maneuvering and just plain nastiness between Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell and President Joe Biden. They are portrayed as mortal enemies. But those two need to set aside their differences this week. No matter how long and bitter is the history of their political disagreements, they need to work together to provide the federal aid that is necessary for the people of Kentucky, Tennessee, Illinois, Missouri and Arkansas to recover from what may have been the most destructive tornadoes ever to occur outside of the usual tornado season. The storms that ripped through the region Friday and Saturday have left death and destruction in their wake. They haven’t found all of the missing people. They don’t have a final count of fatalities.

Everyone in our country needs to do what we can to help those people. That means using the power and financial resources of the Federal Government wether or not you support higher taxes. It means working together to repair and restore highways and bridges regardless of how your senator voted on the infrastructure bill. It means that politicians need to set aside their rhetoric and work together whether or not they like each other.

That is what neighbors do. The job ahead makes a stuck pickup a very small matter indeed. But a stuck pickup can remind all of us that there are things more important than the politics that divide us.

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