When The Dust Settles

I asked when the madness ends. How about what comes after.

Because a fight is only worth having if you know what you are fighting for.

So let me paint the picture. Here is what it looks like when the dust settles.

It starts with good paying jobs. Work that lets a man or woman hold their head up. A paycheck that covers the rent, the groceries, and a little left over. One job should be enough to raise a family. That used to be true in this country. It can be true again.

Health care comes next. Nobody should go broke because they got sick. Nobody should skip the doctor because they are scared of the bill. A country that can’t take care of its sick has lost its way.

Then retirement. You work your whole life. You should be able to rest at the end of it. Not worry. Not count pennies at the kitchen table wondering what gets cut this month. Rest, with dignity, after the work is done.

When the dust settles, there is accountability. People in charge answer for what they do. Not with excuses. Not with a press release. With results, or with the door.

There is reliability too. You can count on things working. The roads, the mail, the water, the promises. When somebody says they will do a thing, they do it.

And there is trust. Trust is slow to build and quick to lose. We have lost a lot of it. When the dust settles, we earn it back, one kept promise at a time.

Equality means one set of rules for everybody. Rich or poor, connected or not. The same law, the same courthouse door, the same fair shot.

Respect and empathy go together. You don’t have to agree with your neighbor to respect him. You don’t have to walk his road to understand it was hard. A little of both would go a long way right now.

Responsibility belongs to all of us. Not just the people in office. Me, you, the man down the street. We each carry our share. A country is only as strong as the people willing to carry it.

When the dust settles, we have each other again. Not red and blue. Not us and them. Just neighbors. People who show up when the storm hits, no matter who they voted for.

We are united. That doesn’t mean we all think alike. It means we pull the same direction when it counts. A rope with every strand pulling a different way snaps. Pull together and it holds.

There is honor again. Doing the right thing when no one is watching. Keeping your word because it is your word. Honor doesn’t cost a dime, and it is worth more than anything money can buy.

And there is pride in who we are. Not loud pride. Not the kind that puts others down. The quiet kind. The kind you feel when you look at what your country stands for and know you helped hold it up.

Love and care are the center of it all. Care for the old and the young. Care for the folks who fell on hard times. Love that shows up as a casserole on the porch and a hand on the shoulder.

Education opens every other door. Kids who can read, think, and question. Grown folks who never stop learning. A people who can think for themselves are hard to fool.

Then there is compliance, discipline, and order. Those words make some folks nervous. They shouldn’t. Order is what lets freedom work. Rules we all follow are what keep the strong from running over the weak. Discipline is what gets the job done when nobody feels like doing it.

But most of all, when the dust settles, there is enjoyment and fun.

I mean that. Somewhere along the way we forgot how to enjoy this life. Ballgames, cookouts, front porch evenings. Laughing with your neighbor instead of arguing with him. Life is short. It was never meant to be all fight.

That is what we are working toward. Not just fixing what is broken. Building something worth living in.

The dust will settle. It always does. The only question is what we find standing when it clears.

Let’s make sure it is something we’re proud of. Something our kids will want to keep.

That is the whole picture. Now let’s go build it.

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This post was drafted with AI governed assistance and reviewed and directed by Michael S. Faust Sr. before publication.

” Attic Thoughts”-library – Intelligent People Assume Nothing