What brings us together. . .

Amy's been out of the running for a couple of weeks now, but I threw my hat in her circle several months ago because of an answer she gave when she showed up in the neighborhood, a few weeks before an event that's most sadly over--the Iowa Caucuses. Remember them?

Before we went into the hall where she was to speak, her staff had us write down questions because Amy was going to grab a few out of a fish bowl. It just so happened that I had one. I wouldn't have asked it in the rally, but I took the time to write it down.

Back then, the only TV ad she'd run ended with what I considered a fantasy claim about us, the American people. I don't remember the words exactly anymore, but the sentiment she thought she was passing along made me roll my eyes. It went something like this: "we can do better because we are better."

She was talking about us.

Pie in sky. 

The American electorate is oil and water. Either Fox News or CNN. Either hate Donald J. or follow him anywhere. Try to find a real independent these days. We could have an election tomorrow or wait 'til November--numbers wouldn't change. When it comes to the POTUS, we all know where we stand. The divide makes the Grand Canyon look a deer path.

So I wrote down my question, something like this: "Could you stand by your claim that we're really capable of doing great things together? I don't believe you."

And I was serious.

Wouldn't you know it? --she fished my question out of the bowl first and didn't hesitate. She talked about the 2007 bridge collapse in Minneapolis. It was an awful thing. The Interstate 35W bridge over the Mississippi River just fell in, rush hour, and took 111 vehicles with it, killing 13, injuring 145.

Amy Klobuchar said that what she saw there was people helping each other, no regard for race or creed or political persuasion, people rescuing others, putting themselves and their well-being--even their lives--last, putting others first. That horrible tragedy, she said, made manifestly clear to her that we can do better than we're doing.

Whether or not that's true, I bought it, bought her faith.

As we speak, medical officials in northern Italy are considering guidelines vastly beyond draconian; they're determining--because of the onslaught of sick patients--how they can distribute limited medical services to coronavirus sufferers that may very well overwhelm those services. They are actually talking about who may have to die to save others.

"UK hospitals are already discussing how they will need to ration care to those most likely to survive in the event there are not enough beds, ventilators or staff to care for the numbers infected if the worst case scenario predictions prove accurate," so says the Independent.

Last night, the on-line Atlantic ran this as a "tip for the day":  "See people as allies in this unique moment of uncertainty." 

That's hard, hard work.

"Politics divide," or so the old proverb goes; "tragedy unites."

We may be in for some uniting, but it'll cost us, as it so often does. Our fractured world may be on the brink of having once again to learn a difficult lesson--how to love.