National Brokenness and Belonging

Abstract

In the summer of 2009, as the United States Congress considered passing legislature that would provide a similar kind of health care for its citizens as in most other countries in the West, a nationwide set of events focused national consciousness. In what were called “town hall meetings,” crowds assembled to shout their disdain at their congressional representatives for considering the legislation. In Petaluma, California, for instance, a woman, among hundreds of people packed into a municipal hall, wept as she told her congresswoman her despair at “losing her country” because of the proposed legislation. As she returned to her seat, the crowd cheered her courage and shouted down the congresswoman trying to respond to her. This scene repeated itself across the country, often descending into shouting matches in which no one was finally audible. Ironically, the anti-health bill advocates proved their own hypothesis that the United States had lost its way, as they themselves illustrated the country’s inability to have public conversations about important issues.