It is Inauguration Day 2017.  As usual I walked my cute pup Sammy before the sunrise . . . he and I are both morning mammals.

Today my neighborhood, Capitol Hill, is a Fortress Americana, Humvees and young soldiers abound.

Just like in January 2009.  Looks the same . . . feels quite different.

Then, I, a gay man, felt my rights were on the cusp of recognition.  I did not seek governmental help in achieving a job, a home, or a vibrant supportive community . . . those things I managed just fine with the assistance of many non-governmental allies.

Nor did I want America to be “great again”, “great again” to me means an age of  “the closet”, rampant homophobia, AIDS deaths by the thousands, hate crimes, and the word “faggot” used with reckless abandon.

In short, I wanted the right to marry, not just to feel like my family is just like yours, to know that my country, by law, demands it.  Equality is a funny thing, it incentivizes citizenry responsibility.  I used my status as a hated minority as an excuse to hide my true potential for many years.

Inequality fosters suboptimal performance at the individual and at the federal level.

So my dream was realized, faster than I thought possible.  Many barriers were torn down over the past several years.

And new ones erected.

America is an idea as much as it is a large tract of real estate we must “protect”.  The idea is what is worth protecting and propagating.  And what is this idea? A more perfect union.  Gosh, that concept is so sexy to me, as we experiment our way towards the “more perfect” and honestly debate the path(s) we chose to get there.

I did very little, in fact, to bring about the change that allowed me to marry my husband.  Lots of other people did the heavy lifting to construct a more perfect union for all Americans.  Top-down inspiration and bottom-up hard work.  I have been such a bear to live with these past several weeks as I cope with all this political change that I sure hope my husband still thinks it was all worth it.  

Democracy, like a marriage, is messy by design.  Churchill reminded us (on what in now Veterans Day) in 1947, that in fact democracy is annoyingly inefficient and arduous, but in the history of the human race, the alternative is often despotism.

The despot tells us he has the answers we have “all” been looking for.  We just need to “trust” him, for he will solve what we cannot solve.  It is the ultimate political moral hazard, fundamentally undermining our freedom and liberty.

When we harken back to a glorified and rarefied past, when we try to capture something that is gone forever, or frankly may never have been, we become reactionary, not conservative.

In 1963, after years of dealing with a Cold War that almost destroyed our country and our world, President Kennedy spoke about a new way to think about peace.  He understood that what we had been trying was failing.

So duh, let’s try something else!  (Imagine JFK uttering that sentence.)

He asked, “What kind of peace do we seek?”  And like all memorable JFK speeches he began to answer it for us.  Visionary leaders, and he had moments of the true visionary, direct our better angels toward justice, courage, and a greater humanity.

“Not merely peace in our time,” he implored, “peace in all time . . . Our problems are man made, therefore they can be solved by man . . . for in the final analysis our most basic common link is that we all inhabit this small planet, we all breathe the same air, we all cherish our children’s future, and we are all mortal.”  [If you want to hear this in his words with Hollywood music in the background watch the end of the movie 13 Days, here is a YouTube clip of that ending].

Solved by us, not by one human.  We tap into our common humanity always . . . and establish responsibility writ large.  Taking responsibility, also, for our role in bringing about collective fear, and how that fear can destroy of our way of life from within our shores, not from beyond them.

JFK came to this realization after weathering extreme crises, and he is suggesting a new way forward in spite of our collective fears . . .

Genuine peace.

The peace we seek does not mean we always win or we always solve or we always affect positive change.  It does not mean “the placid life”.

It means we live by virtuous values and demand the same of all other people, leaders and non leaders alike in our country and around the world.

Beware of false prophets who claim they have all the solutions.  Grieve what is lost forever, but stop waiting to feel “better” before you get started building a better and more perfect future.  Oh, and stop assuming, like I once did, that other people will do the difficult work for you.

Take a deep breath . . . in fact, take another.

Now get to work.