Taking a step for progress

A stone wall is shown along Benedict Road in Woodstock, Vermont. (Gareth Henderson Photo)

So many of us have been looking for solutions to big issues, and these days, the answers we need can seem hard to come by. What we're facing as a country has left us feeling stunned before. By now, we've all been there.

As we all seek that next step, it's easy to look for the quickest possible way to our destination. It can seem like the most obvious way through the fog. But no solution worth having appears that easily, especially in unusual times. As we keep our goal before our hearts and minds, the key is the approach to the journey and what guides it.

The highest goal today is unity, and in much of the nation, post-election fervor seems to be guiding how many people view one another. That of course includes political labels, but we know there's more to a person than their political affiliation. The key is getting people in a room together, beginning a dialogue and establishing trust.

Trust is something New York Times columnist David Brooks mentioned in a recent conversation with Katie Couric on The Pulse. Brooks said, "Two generations ago, if you asked people, 'Are your neighbors trustworthy?', 60% say yes. Now it's only 33%." He goes on to say, "And somehow restoring trust in each other is the elemental task."

This is a crucial point, because the key to building unity in the U.S. today is not about resolving political differences. It's about trusting each other enough to have an honest conversation about them, a conversation grounded on listening, decency and compassion. The biggest thing keeping those conversations from happening is fear, and that's something we have to overcome as a people, if progress is to be made.

The good news is, we can always make the decision to have those difficult conversations and gain a stronger understanding of one another. That would be a strong basis for working together on key issues, and it would all start at the community level. In this election year, much attention is rightly focused on the national scene, however that shouldn't make us ignore the difference we can make by encouraging such dialogue locally. It's an important step to take, and we can all urge that progress forward for our community, and our nation.

— Gareth Henderson