How Do We Agree to Disagree?

I witnessed something like a week in Park City, Utah, that felt as if I was being exposed to something rarely witnessed in NYC. It made me wonder how do we come back from MAGA land?  How do we find trust again?  How do we agree to disagree without anger and scorn?  How do we learn to behave again?

On Super Bowl Sunday I was getting a coffee at the local market.  There were two women behind the counter waiting on us. Both looked like they were of Mexican descent.  

A man commented on how quickly they were moving today, and the woman running the coffee machine said, “It’s the Super Bowl today, so we are moving fast.”  He looks at her and yells, “I am not watching the Super Bowl because those people (aka Bad Bunny)aren’t Americans.  He got insanely irritated and stomped off.

Once he left, I turned to the two ladies behind the counter and felt so upset witnessing this, but they were numb to this behavior. And I noted to them that this person was obviously supportive of a President who is raping children rather than Bad Bunny. I also noted that Bad Bunny’s family has lived in Puerto Rico (a U.S. territory) since the late 1800s. They were extremely appreciative.

The question I keep wondering is, how do we agree to disagree again? How do we learn to trust government again? How do we learn to trust media again? Trump has somehow normalized bigotry, racism, and misogyny. How do we turn that back, especially since too many (one is too many) are getting behind this arrogant, disgusting behavior, not that dissimilar to how most men behaved a long time ago?

It took a long time to get to where we are, probably starting with what the government did during Vietnam, which is fully lie to the citizens of the United States and send young men to war for a decade when they knew we were never going to win. Will it take another fifty years to trust again? Let’s hope not. Education and transparency would be a step in the right direction.