From economic strain to political dysfunction, the costs of losing shared responsibility are piling up.
We may not all share the same faith, but we can still share the same responsibility: to care for one another. In a country as diverse as ours, that principle matters more than ever. For me, it comes down to a simple commandment that has guided my life, my ministry and now my campaign for Congress: love your neighbor.
That calling led me into my 30-year career in ministry. Like my parents, I answered the call to serve my community by caring for people’s hearts and souls as they celebrate and grieve. This life of service includes tending to people’s physical needs, such as feeding the hungry and housing the homeless. And we can do so far more effectively by changing the policies that are hurting them in the first place. That is what led me to run for Alaska’s seat in the U.S. House of Representatives. Nearly every destructive policy causing harm in our nation right now is the result of forsaking this fundamental force for human community. We’ve allowed the runaway greed of billionaires to drive up the cost of living beyond what you and your neighbors can reach. We’ve allowed predatory capitalism to commodify health care, leaving you and your neighbors unable to access life-saving medicine. We’ve allowed our criminal and cruel elected executive to attack with impunity, using his words, the justice system and the military as his own personal weapons. Every day, people confide in me their anxiety about the state of the world. Anxiety and despair are perpetual pandemics as young people succumb to cynicism, looking to their leaders and crying out, “Why doesn’t somebody do something?” They are theinherited. Meanwhile, marginalized communities live their lives in fear, knowing all too well that the people in power would much rather scapegoat them than do the hard work of understanding them, finding real solutions and building a better future. At the heart of their pain is the recognition that the people of this nation have turned our backs on each other, and that in our panicked grab for superiority, we’ve forgotten who we’re supposed to be. Being a superpower isn’t a victory if we win every battle but in the process we become history’s villain. If we lock and shield every inch of our borders but we lose “love your neighbor,” we have lost the very thing that we sought to secure. If we all become billionaires but we lose “love your neighbor,” we are indebted and destitute. If we become the world’s most fierce and fearsome fighting force but we lose “love your neighbor,” we are nothing but blustering weaklings. The good news is that we know the better way. We can start working tirelessly for a tax system that places the burden on multibillionaires and allows working-class Americans to keep what they earn. We can ensure that affordable, accessible health care is available to every single person in our country, regardless of their ability to pay. We can invest in our infrastructure, our educational system and our workers’ rights so that all people can thrive throughout the country, especially here at home in Alaska. These aren’t pie-in-the-sky dreams, they are realities within our reach when we remember that we’re all in this together. Compassion is both the end that we seek and the means to get us there. It is what will lead us forward, upward and out of the darkness and division our country is currently mired in. It is how I have lived my life, and it is what I will bring to Congress. Our best days still lie ahead. But the only way forward is to remember to love our neighbor. When we lose that, we lose everything.Open & Shut: Anchorage gets new eateries — Polynesian, Mexican and American with global twists — as well as a game board cafe and a cannabis shopMiss Manners: When an attempt to be kind would actually be rudeAsking Eric: My hiking friends don’t seem to want to hang out indoors
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