The Pragmatic Humanist
There are moments of clarity that happen in life, moments that reshape your views, your drive, your very purpose.
This was the second time in my life that I had seen my country under attack, watching it unfold live on television. Nothing for me to do but sit there, helplessly in shock once again.
Only this time it was ourselves, our own nation as an angry mob beating police, smashing windows, breaking doors, scaling the roof. Our normally smooth transition of power was in doubt.
An attempted insurrection on American soil.
In stark contrast to their hatred, my own anger that had been boiling inside me for the last four years suddenly dissipated. I was stunned in disbelief, but not hateful. Instead I felt what I had when I was young, when I had a need to give back to the country I loved.
I had enlisted in the Navy straight out of high school and served for six years. The first two were training and the last four were stationed onboard a ballistic missile submarine. It was a job, not an adventure, but one I’m always glad I did; unlike so many others I’ve had since.
And as I watched the capitol building shrouded in smoke, I felt the need to help my country hit me again with full force. But how?
I didn’t have the answer.
I went back to work, to a job I was already burned out doing. Only it felt even more hollow than before. Making digital items in video games for people to spend their money on while my country was tearing apart at the seams.
How do you make a difference when you need to make ends meet? When you have a family to feed? Being torn between providing for my daughters today and improving the future of the world they will live in tomorrow.
Rich people funded change. The well connected became politicians. I was neither.
Doing nothing wasn’t an option, not for me, not with my girls future at stake, so I chose to do something, anything.
I started making some videos. The quality was poor, dreadful really, but at least I was getting involved. Most surprising of all, people watched, and commented, and encouraged me to keep going.
People wanted to be informed, they wanted to hear voices that weren’t funded by big money, or by special interests, or who simply lied in an attempt to gain power.
My approach was being pragmatic. Looking for solutions our country could realistically enact and that could help people. I spent time researching topics, video production, sound production and editing.
The research and the writing was something I could spend hours, days, even weeks on. Bury me in data, charts, history, politics and I will never need to come up for air. I had passion for work for the first time in ages.
But the video creation was a chore, and one I wasn’t the best at.
Worst of all, I didn’t feel connected to those who watched. I wanted to have conversations, debates, and answer questions. I wanted to take all of the information I was pouring over and help others make sense of it all. Discuss it in ways they could easily understand and digest. I wanted a sense of community.
There didn’t seem to be anywhere to do that and doing nothing was still not an option, so I made more videos; always searching for a better way to educate, inform, and maybe, just maybe, remove some of the hatred from this world.
What a surprise to find this platform, a delight even. A place I can write, share, connect, discuss. Simply seeing the possibilities is invigorating.
What is America capable of if we stopped hating and started helping?
If we could expose those who wished to mislead and incite simply to gain money and power?
If we could look at each other as neighbors, friends and allies?
If I can help even a little to make that happen, then that is what I want to be doing.
I must do it for my amazing wife and my wonderful three girls, one of which will be joining this crazy world in a few months.
Do it for those whose rights are under attack, for those who love this country and its potential.
Let’s make change happen, together. One person and one day at a time.