Put it Back Together
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Put it Back Together
John Paul Derryberry
“With the world so set on tearing itself apart, it doesn't seem like such a bad thing to me to wanna put a little bit of it back together,” Desmond stated in Hacksaw Ridge, a retelling of his desire to just be a medic during WW2. No gun, no killing others, but serving long side doing his part to take care of others. That quote has been on my mind this week as so many of us have watched what has unfolded in Minneapolis, Greenland, and countless other places. It's horrific how we have settled on treating each other, and the consequences are far-reaching and so deep that it will be a long time before we know and understand the ramifications. We seem intent on tearing ourselves apart. Yet Desmond’s sentiment, plus my penchant for going against the current culture, is part of the second generation of punk rock, as I wonder how the current culture became so black-and-white: either you're against me or with me.
The battle lines were already drawn well before the chaos took hold, and no one from any group seems willing to budge on their opinion. We seem intent on stubbornly backing into our beliefs so far that we have trapped ourselves from showing any sympathy for anyone who disagrees with us. My favorites are the keyboard warriors posting: unfriend me if you disagree. One of the foundational pieces of friendship is disagreement; getting different perspectives from others you trust is such important ingredient in life. If we are going to be done with that, then we will continue to tear ourselves apart in increasingly degrading ways. And maybe that’s the crux of what has occurred here: certain leaders continue to assault our culture, creating a culture of fight, never compromise, never take others' viewpoints into account, and always correct.
The kid in me that latched onto punk rock and counter culture stuff just cannot get with that type of culture. I see what it has done to people, I see the consequences within social work and the communities I work in. It’s one of the most unhealthy things to grow into our culture in my lifetime. For all the law-following folks, we know, throughout history, there have been awful laws that should not have been followed just because they were a law. A certain number of us reading may agree it's an unjust law; another number may feel it’s a just law. But when we fail to engage in dialogue about it with varying views, we fail to be human, and we are doomed to repeat what happened again and again, with those outcomes resulting in the deaths of people.
If that is the culture we aim to create, I will have to do the most punk rock thing and reject a culture of rigidity, lecturing, and tribalism for something I find to be the antidote for what we are experiencing. Being flexible in my thinking, conversing, and building as large a community as possible. But that does not come without boundaries, and standing up for myself and people around me who need me to stand up for them. I think that is the worry a lot of people have: that, by remaining flexible and community-minded, we are signaling some sort of weakness. I could not disagree more. It takes conviction, moral clarity, courage, and compassion to stand in chaos and say I can connect people during these times. To not lose our way or forget the best versions of ourselves. We are at a time when many leaders are hoping our worst selves come out. I can’t think of a better reason for our best versions to rise to the occasion than that face. I will care for people and their views in these times, and, in the words of Desmond Doss, put a little of my community back together for people.