c. 2008 Religion News Service

(UNDATED) A month from today (Oct. 7), American citizens will vote in perhaps the most critical election since 1932 or perhaps 1860.

We are deeply divided, and not just over which candidates we prefer.

We are divided over national identity and our place in the world. We are divided over fundamental human rights, including our own as citizens.

We are divided over who can participate in America’s abundance, who can live here, and whose personal and career interests take precedence.

We are divided over threat assessments _ how dangerous these times are, who or what endangers us, and how much, if any, of our fundamental identity and freedom we need to sacrifice for security.

We are divided over the state of our culture. Are we adrift, doing OK, or so morally bankrupt that corrective, if heavy-handed, actions are required?

We are divided over virtually every aspect of our common life, from education to labor to the environment to entertainment to families to religion.

Some division is normal and healthy. Our Constitution was crafted to deal with the reality of division. Historically, our great strength has been our bedrock right to think freely, to speak freely and to disagree openly.

But something deep and disturbing is going on now. It reminds me of the epic divisions between farmers and bankers and between labor and management, in which each side loathed and distrusted the other and saw no basis for compromise or mutual respect. “They’re just animals,” a coal operator once told me about his mineworkers.

Our politicians are trapped in these divisions and are not prepared to lead us out of them. They are all about attack ads, gotcha barbs, surprise revelations of little consequence, flutters over appearance, and issue avoidance. Citizens are left to guess what some key aspirants would do in office.

The stakes are enormous. The world has changed far more than most Americans realize. It is more dangerous for us, more competitive, less enamored of our way of life. Our current financial crisis reveals deep veins of incompetence and corruption, as well as dysfunctional systems for managing money and power.

We will survive the current financial collapse, but some fundamental trust has been lost. We knew that the extremes couldn’t be trusted. Now we learn that the “center,” whose ability to “stand” is so necessary, is deeply flawed.

It is time for citizens to take matters into their own hands. I don’t mean armed uprising or any further scapegoating. I mean having the debates that politicians refuse to have _ at our dinner tables, in our neighborhoods, churches and workplaces. The issue isn’t just one Election Day. The issue is what citizens will do to rescue our nation from its incompetent and corrupt leadership.

We need to think through basic matters, like how to get food to the hungry, how to help distressed homeowners within our reach, how to ratchet down the invective among social classes, how to instruct our children in good citizenship, and how to look behind labels like “liberal” and “conservative” to see shared interests.

Even though recent politicians have done everything possible to seize all reins of power, we need to take them back, not because we crave power, but because “this land is our land,” and nothing will get better until “we the people” do what is right, starting with accepting the inescapable reality that we don’t agree on what is right.

(Tom Ehrich is a writer, church consultant and Episcopal priest based in New York. He is the author of “Just Wondering, Jesus,” and the founder of the Church Wellness Project, http://www.churchwellness.com. His Web site is http://www.morningwalkmedia.com.)

KRE/RB END EHRICH600 words

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