A Little Hope

In keeping with my summer writing semi-sabbatical and my vow to steer clear of topics concerning politics, economics and international affairs for a few weeks, last week I wrote a short piece recommending a wonderful memoir that would immerse you in nostalgia for an American society that has almost disappeared.

This week, I want to write about hope, and I want to draw on a couple of personal experiences this week that gave me some hope for the future.  Much is being written about our divided country.  The MSM and social media would lead you to believe that we are nearly at each other’s throats much of the time.  Twitter mobs and Antifa marches and the clash between CNN and FoxNews portray a fraying country on the brink of becoming unglued.

But on the ground where it counts we most often see an entirely different picture.  This week I personally observed a couple of incidents that told me (to paraphrase Mark Twain) that reports of the demise of American society have been greatly exaggerated.

On my way to an industry group golf outing, I stopped at a gas station and convenience store to fill up and pick up a few small items.   The fellow at one of the two registers was a young Indian man and we engaged in a brief conversation about where he was from.  He apparently was from Bhuj, a town near the Pakistan border.   Then pointed to the other fellow that was working the other register and said that he was from Karachi, directly across the border in Pakistan.   He said they should have never partitioned India and Pakistan.   He took a step over to his fellow employee, put his arm around him, smiled broadly and said, “See, we go home and we fight.   We come back here and we best friends.”  Had I been a little more aware, I would have whipped out my cell phone of these two guys working together and grinning and clearly enjoying working together.  And he is correct.  In another context, these guys might well be taking potshots at each other.

And then later in the week, I stopped by the Chicago Botanic Garden to enjoy the scenery and listen to some evening summer music as the season winds down.  I stopped by the beer garden to get a glass of wine and the bartender was a young African American woman. 

“What would you like, sir?”

“A cabernet, please.”

“A glass or a bottle?”

I laughed, “Given the week, I could probably use a bottle, but the police get mad when you do that, so a glass will be fine.  I’m driving.”

She laughed and then motioned over my shoulder and said, “I really hate to see that.”

I turned and there was an old woman picking through the trash bin and pulled out a basket with some potato chips left in it from a previous patron.

The young bartender immediately went to the back, filled a basket with nacho chips, sour cream and salsa to bring out to this woman. 

I took the chips, and said, “Just wait on your customers.  I will take them to her.”

I brought them out and offered them to the bag lady and said, “These are on the house.  If you want a hamburger or something else, I’m buying.”  

She refused me and said, “These are plenty for me, thanks.”

I tried again but she wasn’t having it.

Despite her refusal though, I was moved by the actions of the young black woman that was working the bar.  She cared enough to pay attention to this woman and try to do something about her plight, and at least relieve the woman’s hunger for one day, a person that was a total stranger to her.

This is the America I love.  People from different cultures, different races, and sometimes from places where they would otherwise be sworn enemies working together and assisting each other. 

Ironically, I had just this week started reading Raghuram Rajan’s new book, “The Third Pillar: How Markets and the State Leave the Community Behind.”  Rajan is one of the thinkers I follow closely and he is deeply concerned about the erosion of community in our society.

I am too, but this week I saw some tangible evidence that it is not quite dead yet, and it gave me some reason to hope.  Does bigotry and racism exist?  Sure. But in our day to day lives the proportion of acts of compassion, empathy and kindness to acts of bigotry runs overwhelmingly in favor of compassion, empathy and kindness.