My father taught me many truths. One of these was, when I found myself in any situation, to ask: “What is my part?”
I had forgotten this until I was much older. I liken it to living in a house — a really nice house, the best house on the block, and everyone thought so.
One day, I noticed a tiny little crack in the foundation on the right side of my basement wall. I ignored it.
Over the next 30 years, I continued to ignore the crack, as I was quite busy living the American dream — wife, two great kids, good job, yada, yada, yada.
Down in the foundation of my home, the crack got larger and larger. One day, the basement wall developed a leak — groundwater was seeping through the crack.
I called a repairman and he came over to take a look. He told me the crack was serious and I should pay attention to it.
I told him just to plaster over the crack to stop the leak of groundwater and thought, “Next buyer’s concern.”
Recently, I noticed the crack had grown severely. It had become larger than even the part the mason had covered over.
My wall was literally starting to crumble right before my eyes. My beautiful home — what is happening here?
I should have asked, “What is my part?” I ignored the damage for decades, when I could have worked to fix the problem before it got too big to repair.
Yes, the house represents my country. When I was in college, I demonstrated against the Vietnam War, but not in the protests that grew violent, which I thought were wrong.
Eventually, Richard Nixon signed a peace accord (after he had used the war to get reelected). And I went politically dormant, thinking, “OK, we did our part.”
Over the decades, I have voted every time in the presidential election — but not in the off-years between them.
And not in the state elections, nor the county elections, and not even in the town elections where I lived.
The crack grew. I began to participate in elections again with the first presidential campaign of Barack Obama, and I was thrilled when he won — the mason covering over the crack.
Ten years later, living in Overland Park, I found myself with some time, so I became a campaign worker for someone running for congress, Sharice Davids.
