Cook: Why did the American cross the street?

Staff Photo by Ashlee Culverhouse/Chattanooga Times Free Press - June 22, 2012. David Cook

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In these divided days, let us take three steps toward each other.

First, I need to say this again. Please listen.

When you elected Trump, you sent a message.

To your black neighbors.

To your Muslim neighbors.

To your Hispanic neighbors.

To your immigrant neighbors.

To your gay neighbors.

To your female neighbors.

It's a message that threatens and frightens. Put yourself in their shoes. Please realize what folks on my side of the street are experiencing.

Because it's time I extended the same respect to yours.

The second step?

I'm listening to you.

After reading last week's column, you've called, emailed and messaged, over and over. Your side of the street? You felt maligned and misunderstood. I can't print all of the messages, but here's one in its entirety from a reader I'll call Jim:

"David Cook, your imbalanced views are why you're a textbook example of a failing ideology.

I voted for Trump so I'm automatically a hate- mongering deplorable to you.

David, let me tell you something that maybe you'll get through your thick skull.

Here's a short list of what I voted for.

I want to be able to say Merry Christmas this year.

I voted for structure. A country with porous borders has no structure. God runs a structured universe.

I voted for accountability. Why should a corrupt democratic candidate be rewarded.

I voted to stop the spending spree of a corrupt system.

I voted to give Christians a right to stand for their religious conscious [sic].

There's no give and take with you militant liberals. If a county clerk is going against her conscious [sic] to marry a gay couple, let that couple find another clerk.

Frankly, we are sick of you.

We're sick of the American flag being spat on.

We're sick of the cultural rot coming out of Hollywood that's worse than what Trump said or did. Do you go to movies?

We're sick of your double standards you hypocrite. You're the reason Trump won this election. I for one am overjoyed.

The more you whine the more you expose yourself for what you are.

I am proud that I voted to keep the most repulsive despicable candidate ever to run for the presidency in history out of the White House.

With all your education, how do you not get that.

4 years ago, I wouldn't have written this, but we're tired of it and we're pushing back. We're tired of turning the other cheek."

Strong message, isn't it? The first few times, I read Jim's email defensively. Then, curiously. Then, finally, I heard him.

Jim loves this country. And his God. And the people on his side of the street.

He wants them safe and secure. He wants his beliefs respected, not trampled. Wants America to feel like home.

We do, too.

Jim's email - and the dozens like it - taught me something that hurt to realize. I had stopped caring about your side of the street. You've got your own wounds and fears that are legitimate and worthy of a compassionate response.

This week put me in a strange position. I had one eye on the rage and hurt on my side of the street; yet every hour, with every new email and message, I saw the rage and hurt on your side.

Soon, the grievances and wounds merged together. Instead of Democrat or Republican, I just saw anger and fear.

And I realized something.

We're all suffering.

In our minds. In our hearts. We're all afraid and angry. Democrats. And Republicans. Very few are at peace in America.

We fight a battle that never ends. By solely identifying with one party, candidate or ideology, we enter into a binary, us-and-them relationship with the world. We are set up for failure, not peace of mind. We are set up for endless aggression, not resolution.

"In a battle, the winners and the losers both lose," the Buddha once said.

It creates a giant tug of war. Push, pull. Back, forth.

So what if we just dropped the rope?

What if fighting for the freedom on Jim's side of the street also meant freedom for mine?

What if ending Jim's suffering also somehow ended mine?

I'm not talking about common ground politics, or building a bridge from my side of the street to yours.

I'm talking about getting rid of the street altogether.

That's the third step. It's time to imagine a movement in America that does not discriminate forms of suffering. It has room for Jim and his Muslim neighbor. It has room for me and you, Trump voter. It realizes the truest pursuit of happiness does not come at the expense of others.

Yes, that's an awfully big step.

Maybe, to begin, we start small. Like this:

Jim, your email was a wake-up call. Thank you. Hope you have a good Thanksgiving.

And a Merry Christmas.

David Cook writes a Sunday column and can be reached at dcook@timesfreepress.com or 423-757-6329. Follow him on Facebook at DavidCookTFP.