Day 41 of the Apocalypse, Ground Zero, Gerton, NC pop. 231

My husband and I do not always see eye-to-eye when it comes to politics.

We often vote differently. We often disagree.

We have the same fundamental beliefs, but we each have different perspectives about what it will take in order for our nation to support those beliefs.

When we take the time to get into the nitty gritty of it, we are often surprised by how closely our values align. But on the surface, it can look like they don’t.

As a child, I was taught that Conservatives are bad, and Liberals are good. It was easy for this belief to be reinforced by my Liberal Quaker community, and growing up in Washington, DC. In my childhood, a wild percentage - like 90% - of the people, who lived in the DC area and worked for the Federal government, voted Democratic.

I was taught black and white thinking, because that is what most of us are taught as children. Categorizing things, and people, is human nature. Our logical brains can’t help but sort things into digestible pieces.

Once, on a whim in my early 20s, I registered as a Republican, just to see what would happen when I went to vote near my home in SouthWest DC. I was handed a Democratic ticket. The box of Republican tickets hadn’t even been opened.

A dozen years ago I moved to North Carolina - a part of the South with a lot of Conservatives. Four years ago, I moved to a teeny tiny community in rural Appalachia full of old school Conservatives.

I can guess what many of my neighbors political views are, by whether or not they were armed during the first weeks of the Apocalypse. But then again, even some Liberals I know were armed. We have a remarkable diversity of beliefs and values here in our tiny community.

In the wake of the hurricane, we didn’t hear anyone talk about politics. For a short time, we lived in a world where politics didn’t matter, and it was fucking delightful.

To date, I haven’t heard anyone here talk about the Presidential election, outside of some rumblings about what Biden, Harris and Trump did or didn't do in the wake of the Hurricane.

“They shouldn’t have flown over the devastation."

“They should have flown over the devastation.”

“They didn’t even try to come see our area.”

“They did come to see us, and got in the way by stopping air traffic and emergency work.”

“They didn’t even donate money for recovery.”

“They did donate money, but that was a cop out.”

There is always more than one side to a story.

The rules change in the wake of lawlessness. It becomes less about what your political beliefs are, and more about your willingness to step up and do the hard things when the shit hits the proverbial fan.

Instead of being divided among political lines, we instead became divided along resourcefulness, and our ability to care for our neighbors.

What might be possible for us as a nation, if instead of choosing division, we all choose to prioritize not only our individual care, but care for our neighbors, irregardless of their beliefs, or ours?

Political division will not help you when your home is damaged, your power is out, your cell phone has no service, your road is destroyed, and you are running out of food.

There is no us. There is no them.