Please Pass the Glue

May the force be with you — actually, may two forces be with you. These two forces are discussed in high school physics and experienced in daily life:  the force of attraction such as gravity and the force of repulsion. Ride on a fast-moving merry-go-round and you will experience the latter force as the spinning merry-go-round pushes us outward.

The force of attraction produces the opposite effect. It is the force that tends to push us together toward a center point. An example may be experienced when we lose a battle with gravity and fall off a ladder. We are being pushed toward the center of our massive friend, the Earth. That could also happen in a crowd when we see a person so beautiful or handsome that we have to move closer to them.

We owe our existence, and that of the universe for that matter, to a balancing of these two forces. When they get out of whack in their relationships, very violent and destructive things happen. Stars blow up in huge super nova explosions. People blow up in terrible acts of violence. Societies are destroyed.

As it is with the merry-go-round, so it is with the rather messy business of life in a democracy. There are forces that tend to push the diverse elements of the country away from each other and disable their ability to work effectively and harmoniously: civil wars, murderous religious disputes, a leader’s behavior, fear of crime, hatred of other people and racial unrest, for example.

One of the saddest victims of this kind of force is our ability to have reasoned discourse and reach compromise. If we lose that ability to speak sincerely with one another, we risk being sideswiped in an accident without a seatbelt. Our society will be swept along a harmful direction.

If we don’t focus on forces that can unite us; if we don’t act as colleagues in a common cause, repulsive forces will overwhelm our institutions and turn friends and neighbors toward disassociation and suspicion about one another. This is not good for America, and it’s certainly not good for us and our little children.

We search for the right medium to bring us back together. We search for a national version of Elmer’s Glue strong enough and widespread enough to overcome the impacts. In other words, we had better be on the lookout for ideas, programs or beliefs which champion attractive force.

With that goal in mind, I respectfully offer several ideas for American Renewal programs. These are well within our capabilities to implement. All favor the forces of attraction. All involve actions by local governments with help, but not overt leadership, by our federal friends.

Because of that more local role, these can be implemented faster and more tailored for success than would be the case if they were mandated from Washington D.C., from a state capital, or cobbled together by a barely functional Congress.

These ideas represent key areas for federal funding — key areas for local government creativity and implementation. Perhaps the new administration will proclaim support for their kinds of initiatives as very important components of our nation’s overall “infrastructure.” Federal start-up, or “incubator” grants should be used to fund the efforts described below, and others as well.

• Community colleges can create and drive programs reminding every student about the value to our society of constructive engagement, civil discourse among people who disagree and creative social problem solving.

A recent example is the founding, at Broward College in South Florida, of the Center for Civic Engagement and Leadership, headed by retired County Commissioner John Hart.

• No one suffering because of mental illness should be left without care and support. This is at the root of much of our homeless, drug abuse, teen suicide and violence problems.

Wellness, in general, is a form of personal defense more valuable than taking karate lessons or carrying around a loaded handgun.

• A nurse-educator in every school — elementary through high school — to be in the classroom daily would help. Health includes more than drug-resistance education. It involves fighting and preventing the diseases of bullying, smoking, and not wearing a seat belt. Every kid, certainly every parent, should be active in practicing this form of self-defense.

Perhaps the local physician community can set aside time for health screening in the schools, including time with parents of kids identified by teachers as being especially in need of “self-defense” lessons.

I bet thousands of local hospitals, clinics, paramedics and private practitioners would join in the effort. We put police officers in schools, how about “paramedic-resource officers?”

Part of this renewal should involve strengthening the education of children with regard to solving problems between human beings constructively, without resorting to force and without resorting to bullying, direct or online harassment, thoughts of suicide or resorting to bringing dad’s gun to school.

• Making sure every elected and every appointed official — everyone in a position of strength and authority including police officers — is trained better than ever, evaluated more seriously than ever, and honored and compensated better than ever, in recognition of the “glue” their work provides in society.

After all, we demand more than ever before of our police officers. They are our mental health first responders as well as our domestic violence resolvers.

More responsibility will be coming their way in the future as society gets increasingly complicated.

Take these steps, well within our financial and institutional capabilities, mix well with ongoing public demonstrations of how problems were solved by people working together rather than by 140-word assaults, and we will have contributed mightily to rebalancing forces which ultimately will determine the future of America.