I am not the enemy!

It has been just over a week since Joe Biden was officially projected as the winner of the 2020 presidential election. That day brought a great sense of joy and relief to many who align with my beliefs. My wife and I cheered, shouted, and danced when the news was cast. We ran to the store and bought champagne to take to our friends house. It was one of the few days since the beginning of this pandemic that we didn’t even think twice about getting together, we just went. Concern took a back seat to joy that day.

Since that day I have been constantly reflecting on some conversations I’ve had recently that scare me to death. These conversations combined with an observation of sold out gun counters and ammunition departments have made it impossible for me to move past them.

The first was a while ago when I went into a trailer repair shop that I would often spend time in while I was working in Wisconsin. On this particular day I was talking to one of the mechanics and recommending a rock band for him to check out. Ninety percent of the music that played while I was in there was rock so I assumed this band would fit into what he listened to. I discovered, much to my surprise, that outside of work he listened to country and wasn’t the rocker that I thought he was. It wasn’t a big deal, I listen to everything and would find something else to recommend a different day. The shock to this conversation followed him telling me about liking country music. He went on to say “I love my guns, my beer, and my country (music).” He then told me the thing he hated was Democrats. I was stunned that the conversation turned this quickly, but since my time there was generally just pass through inspections or tire repairs we had never really gotten past small talk. He had no idea that for most of my life I had identified myself as a Democrat. He told me that he would gladly defend the United States from becoming controlled by the left. “I would lay down my life to keep my kids from living under Democratic rule.” It was disturbing to have this relative stranger be so eager to divulge this to someone he felt would share his views.

Another conversation that happened more recently that left me speechless was while I was making a delivery to a factory that I normally visit a couple times each week. This particular day I wasn’t dealing with my normal receiver but his second-shift mirror, something that has happened a handful of times over the past year. The man would usually go on a rant about something, and generally I would just shrug it off to keep things moving so I could continue my day. This chat went off track when he asked if I had been following the Black Lives Matter protests that were still happening months after George Floyd’s murder. I did my best to just nod along and get my delivery completed so I could leave. He then went on to tell me why he felt BLM would never come to South Dakota or the Midwest (odd because of the fact that both had seen multiple demonstrations this summer). He told me “Black Lives Matter would never come to these areas because they know better.” I asked for him to continue because I was curious to see where this was going. He then said something so appalling that I still can’t comprehend how awful it truly was. “They aren’t coming here because they know everything we hunt is brown. Everything I’ve shot since I was a boy was a shade of brown. I know I wouldn’t even think twice about picking off a couple more brown things to add to my list.” This was not something I could even discuss or reply to, it just left me completely speechless. I left feeling utterly defeated. This racism doesn’t shock me, the willingness to openly discuss it with someone he doesn’t know, at work, paralyzed me.

The third of these conversations happened the day after the election when I pulled into another factory for a delivery. I hopped up on the trailer to rig the material for the crane operator before he came over. He asked what I had been hearing on the road that day. I said “not a lot, I was mainly just mainly following vote counts at this point.” He went on to tell me he had hoped that I was hearing about an uprising, “I was hoping you were gonna tell me we could go beat some liberals.” This wasn’t anything that I was hearing about or expecting at that moment. He told me he was “patiently waiting to kick some liberal ass in the event that Arizona would go red and the left would fight the results.” I continued to play dumb and just listen as he rambled about the fight he was dreaming about. He went into great detail of his desire for a battle to begin and how quickly he would mobilize for the altercation. This again from a total stranger who was quick to assume I was with him.

All three of these conversations ran on the assumption that because I am a man, from the Midwest, who drives a truck, and passes for being white, would share these beliefs. How could this person (me) be anything other than what they are. All three of these men and many others dream of this war between political groups without even knowing who they are against. Most of this stems from a conservative media narrative that feeds their fears of the left coming to take their freedom. Combined with a glorification of past war (especially the Civil War), that makes people think that they will automatically know who their enemies are. They see Red Coats vs. Colonials or Union vs. Confederate soldiers marching shoulder-to-shoulder as what this battle would be today. Anything that doesn’t resemble them would just throw on their Democrat jersey and the fight is on. The same people who are telling me they are ready for this to happen, don’t even realize that I am everything that they are against. I am someone whose moral values align me with a Democratic Party or supports BLM. I am their “enemy” coming to take their freedoms and destroy their lives but, I look like them so it’s impossible for me to not be them.

Modern civil war is not a unified battle. It is chaos. You don’t know who you are against, so you turn to fighting everything that isn’t you. In the case of America’s diversity this would ring even more true. I am not their enemy, regardless of how media may present me. I continue to want unity and compromise even after these conversations. It just becomes more apparent after each one that the struggle for the unity I desire is going to be more difficult with each passing day. If on a daily basis someone hears that people on the opposite side of the political aisle are some radical mob coming to destroy them, those beliefs become more cemented in their mind.

This trickle down of rhetoric didn’t begin in 2016 and will not end with a new president, it will probably amplify. Each one of us will have to do our part to not be someone who drives these fears. We also have to be aware that this tactic will continue. Division is profitable and easier to maintain than unity ever will be. Unity takes work and compromise from everyone. But, we must also show our unity in opposition to this hatred. Wanting a morally correct America is not enough, we must demand it and show it daily.

I probably won’t be reaching across to compromise with any of these three people. But, I will continue to have conversations with the people around me who differ. Conversations that I hope will prevent them from believing that I am somehow their enemy due to our political views.

I truly feel that these next two years will shape how the world see us as Americans. However, these next two months will shape how we see each other as Americans and we can’t afford to take one step back.