“There nerve is dead – you’ll need a root canal.”
I thought I knew what that meant before I had to undergo one. There is incredible pain because a part that has existed in one’s mouth, a tooth, has suffered so much trauma at the nerve root that the resulting infection threatens the life of the tooth, the surrounding teeth, and the human’s health. The most important reason for having a root canal is to save the original, natural tooth.
As I squirmed in the endodontist’s chair, trying to distract myself from the pressure and vibration of the metal tools – and the large needle – I realized that our nation, like my infected tooth, also needs a root canal.
American flags [Pixabay]
Our nation shows the hallmarks of infection, including a nearly four year period of controversy over results from the last election in 2020 and a number of attempts to overturn the election. I consider each inquiry that questioned or attempted to cast doubt on the the outcome to be a tiny strike that formed cavities in teeth. Successful rebuttals into these attempts cleaned out a part of the infection with fillings and even a crown.
Recent events have increased the pace of the infection in our national tooth.
In no particular order, two attempted assassination attempts in July and September on a presidential candidate; attacks on areas outside of the United States such as Hezbollah in Lebanon resulting in the death of leader Nasrallah, incursions into Gaza, and interactions with Iran that may have an impact on how individuals choose to vote in the upcoming elections; recent changes in election rules in various states such as Georgia, North Carolina, Wisconsin, and Arizona including hand-counting votes; and ongoing massive destruction from Hurricane Helene that will directly affect how an election can be conducted in areas that no longer have power, roads, or even homes.
When a Hurricane Helene met North Carolina the first time during the September 21-October 4 period in 1958, the hurricane impacted the eastern United States including Wilmington although it did not make landfall. While it was hard on the area, it was not a presidential election year, and it did not become a national issue.
Nearly 66 years to the day, the five day Category 4 Helene in 2024 is not just a powerful storm at the end of the season, but one of the most powerful storms since the category five hurricanes Katrina (2005) and Maria (2017). Hurricane name lists are created for the year long before anyone knows if they will be used in a particular season. A glance at a list of retired hurricanes names gives a clear idea of why those names are never going to be used again for a storm. Helene will most certainly make that list once the final damage in deaths and destruction in 12 states is known.
Helene has been one more dramatic incident in an already frenzied election season. Helene’s impact provides yet another moment that increases the tension.
In some parts of the United States, early voting allows those who are not able to vote in person on November 5 to make their choice. Voting is not just a civic duty, but also a right, a freedom, and a privilege that should not be taken for granted. Voting is the anesthetic that safeguards the national tooth for a while, but only when all citizens trust, accept, and support the fact of the results.
The sad reality in the United States is that word, “fact,” has lost its meaning. If the word literally means “a thing that is known or proved to be true,” then a questioning of what actually has occurred ends up blurring and obscuring what we believe. It changes what individuals consider to be “fact.”
The word “truth” no longer indicates a shared acceptance of reality in America. Our Declaration of Independence famously includes the proposition that “we hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal.” But do any truths seem self-evident anymore? Do we really have the same understanding of “the truth?”
I no longer can say that Americans hold in common a clearly recognizable definition of simple words like “fact,” “truth,” and “democracy.”
The Declaration of Independence by John Trumbull, 1818 [public domain]
When what we believe can come just as easily from a meme on TikTok or a post on Instagram as it does from a ostensibly well-researched news institution such as The Washington Post or The New York Times, or The Wall Street Journal, then we are in serious trouble as a group of states united by common beliefs and a true democratic republic.
Regardless of political slant or bias, one of the things to be considered is how we can muddle our way through this. Political races are neck and neck. We ask, how can someone be undecided?
For the undecided, let’s look at as though we are choosing where to live or who is going to share our life. Houses and mates require the same kind of thought in a way.
Reality check: we may have a long list of things, but we’re not going to get everything you want. So we go with what’s going to give you 80% of what we’re wanting.
What are your top five considerations you want for a house or a mate or a president? Ask yourself honestly – do your shared ethics and values align? Can you sit down for a glass of wine, a cup of coffee, and shoot the breeze with them? Do you have the same or similar viewpoint you do on major life issues, whatever those might be for you?Do you find these individuals ones you can see standing up for those who look, sound, and appear as you do?
Most importantly, do you see love, L-O-V-E love, from the heart and soul for the country as a whole?
The United States of America is both easy and hard to love. As a friend from Togo reminded me, I live in the greatest country in the world and do not appreciate it. It is not because of money, influence, or wealth that we are here, but because they are true patriots. True patriotism is not just waving a flag. True patriotism is remembering why one is here as much as how one is here.
When I think of why I vote, I think of my parents who were not just poll workers, but they were poll judges for opposing parties. One was Republican, one was Democrat. I was taught that my people not only fought for the right to vote, but that it was a privilege won through violence, bloodshed, humiliation during the Jim Crow era; therefore, to not vote is the same as spitting on the graves and efforts of my ancestors.
My parents urged looking at things carefully, to think through and to consider for oneself what was real, and what was not. One of things I noticed when I went to college was that my college professors asked me the same things: consider first what is being said, read widely not just The New York Times from cover to cover, but also look at the news, look at the local news, the national news, and the international news.
For many in our Pagan, Heathen, and polytheist family, there is a news generation split between those who were raised when news resources were reliable, when facts were both truthful and the truth, and when news reportage came from reliable, trustworthy individuals granted such status due to honoring the tenets of pure journalism. Journalists are the messengers and harbingers of truth and in principle have no skin in the game of Truth, required to report only what is factual and what they gain from reliable sources.
We have journalists who have died to bring the story, the truth, from the depths of hell that few will ever see. We have journalists who have put their ethics above their livelihood and their lives. Their goal is to report Truth with a capital “T,” not truth with small “t” when it is convenient. This is not something that is often remembered.
What does it mean to be a person who seeks and enjoys the truth? Many who join a spiritual paths are seekers. Some seek to find respite or solace from past religious or personal grief and traumas; others seek freedom moving towards a goal or something desired. We understand how pain motivates many to become seekers in our community.
Know that our country is in a similar situation on a larger scale.
If the United States is a made bed, whose linens are changed fully only with every four-year presidential electoral cycle, then our warm comforter was blown off the bed with accusations of election interference during the summer and fall of 2020; the blanket beneath the comforter was ripped asunder with the January 6 insurrection; the top sheet was shredded with revelations during the summer of 2023 with the public January 6 investigations that riveted millions to their phones and televisions. All we have left is the mattress. We sleep in our clothes to ward off the chill that comes with onset of the North American autumn.
Our bed is the heart of our house, the heart of our relationship with our most intimate partner, and the symbolic foundation of our very real trifecta: the Declaration of Independence, the Bill of Rights, and the entire Constitution of the United States.
Yes, we are in pain.
Like many who are in pain, we may try to hide from it through use of substance abuse, such as the denial of the truth of our critical situation. Others may ignore the situation by choosing to abstain, thinking that not voting means that they do not have a dog in the fight for our national character, even though each American is affected by the results of the national election. Finally, there are those who choose to fight openly for their beliefs.
]A diagram demonstrating endodontic therapy (colloquially known as a root canal) on unhealthy or injured tooth: first drilling and cleaning, then filing with an endofile, and finally adding the rubber filling and crown. [Jeremy Kemp, Wikimedia Commons, CC 3.0
We need an endodontist who will open, remove the dead rotting flesh, our decayed national nerve, treat the area with medicine, plug the roots with a rubbery substance that allows the healing process to start, and cover the tooth. The pain from the endodontal therapy afterwards is far less than the misery that drove the patient to do the procedure in the first place. Just as the benefit to doing a root canal is to give a dead or dying tooth a life-saving second chance, in the United States we need to pull out our shared fears, tear out our reluctance to see and understand our shared history, and remove our blind spots regarding the actual purpose of our federal presidential republic.
As voters, we are the participant and the observer. We cast our vote to indicate our choice, and we observe the fair process as a measure of transparency in our electoral process. As American citizens, our history relies upon a foundation of free, open, and transparent elections for all.
Will we do it?
We are the United States of America. We have demonstrated resilience in times good and bad. These are bad times. While some may think this is the worst, we will come together as a nation and as a people in spite of these stress fractures that attack the foundation of our teeth, our country, our people.
We just need a root canal. Drain the infection. Endure the brief pain while our roots are treated and plugged. Remember our history. Remember our relationships. Honor our bed, our house, our foundation. We are fewer than two years from celebrating our two hundred and fiftieth birthday on July 4, 2026.
We can do this. Together.
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