For a period of several decades, ending in the early 2000’s, Bob Gersony was an “humanitarian contractor” to various agencies of the United States government. This is somewhat surprising, given that today’s profile of a private contractor to the government is that of a mercenary whose allegiance is to the connection between his kill count and his paycheck, operating under the protection of Washington officials determined to bring our way of life to heathens around the world, even if we have to decimate their country to do so.
The book entitled “The Good American” chronicles the life story of Gersony. At various times, he went to Guatemala, Mozambique, Nepal, Sudan, Ethiopia. His task was to find out what was going on by talking to regular people, not those higher up who often allowed theory to disturb facts. With a pen and notebook, he interviewed hundreds of refugees, for example, and his policy conclusions were often at odds with those expressed by those in far-off comfortable offices. And his suggestions were almost invariably productive.
There are so many aspects of Bob’s approach that lend themselves to daily living for all of us:
*every person wants to feel empowered to choose his/her own path
*people want to be productive, to live meaningful lives
*most individuals would like to be part of a community, however defined
*having questions for each new person you meet is part of lifelong learning
*listening to answers and following up unlocks more information than using a script
*assumptions without research are perilous
In my circuitous mind, thinking about Gersony and what he did brought me back to wondering about my own country, not a distant situation.
As the United States moves inexorably to one of multiple minorities, it will be incumbent on those in growth mode — Hispanics, Asians, African-Americans, and mixtures of every conceivable combination – to be more charitable to their prior oppressors than the latter have been to them. The alternative is a series of bloodbaths.
White America, which is not growing its population and shows no inclination to do so by suddenly changing its birth rate, will obviously attempt to cling to that power which it regarded as a birth right. At a minimum, many feeling that loss of place will “act out,” as the therapist would say. The prior administration legitimatized violent action, but it was already happening, with one indication being the ultimate acting out, suicide, the rate of which has been rising.
The January insurrection in the nation’s capital was completely shocking for its location, but to me it was not surprising when analyzed through the lens of acting out. For every person who openly totes a gun or throws a rock in frustration, there are thousands, especially in small town and rural America, who are wistful about “the way things used to be,” when a decent job was attainable with only a high school education, when the local factory meant the possibility of lifetime employment, when a white collar position in a multi-layered corporation never would be exposed to downsizing.
Theirs are lives in geographies carved up by farmlands and rivers and hills and railroad tracks, none of which have their historical relevance, not in a world which transacts life through laptops, clicks delivered by people whose fingernails have never been dirtied.
The Elks and the Moose and the VFW and the American Legion are all there, along with monuments to the fallen military personnel who disproportionately come from small town America. Flags are more evident, some tattered but not to be trifled with by those who want perfection in their patriotic displays.
Their memories become their lives; they are attached to them with a defensive strength that defies dispassionate analysis. Scapegoats are eagerly sought.
The more passive of those who are embittered simply have let their votes tell of their frustration. The more aggressive have taken to the streets, to internet postings in an attempt to find compatriots in their delusion that the demographic tide – which they have consistently and erroneously seized upon as the cause of their angst — can be stemmed.
In a country where on average everybody owns a gun, it should not be surprising that so-called sudden and inexplicable violence is paradoxically more the norm than the exception. Murder rates, incarceration levels, childhood gun-related fatalities, domestic violence incidence all are suggestive of a society struggling mightily to cope with its multiple challenges.
There is little doubt that a humanitarian contractor will be needed right here, talking with ordinary people and, through those with power, trying to convert that research into policies that can find a receptive audience. Washington, in contrast, is fixated on its own rules of political engagement, manipulating each other for gains which continue when they become lobbyists after leaving office (just as the corporate executive who has hurt his company walks away with millions of dollars).
And all the while, those segments of the population who are relatively new to being outside the gates of power wonder “what about us,” the same question that those seeking power have been rightfully asking for a very long time. The same question which has now become a series of demands; the due bill of history is now to be paid.
Traveling to the heart of darkness, the inner soul of the United States, and creating a game plan for the complex reality of a shift in power and an evolving revision of the prior American narrative — would be the most difficult assignment every given to a Bob Gersony.