I, like so many Americans, loved watching Luke Combs, a 33-year-old white country singer, join Tracy Chapman, a 59-year-old gay and Black artist, in singing her 1989 hit “Fast Car” at last week’s Grammys.
I was moved by the performance not only because “Fast Car” has been one of my favorite songs for over 30 years but also because seeing Chapman and Combs on stage together gave me hope that the work I do with The Bridge Alliance to bring our country together and to heal the divide that separates us might actually have a chance to succeed.
Who could be more different than Tracy Chapman and Luke Combs? Combs is a star of a genre not known to embrace Black and gay audiences. A recent study by data journalist Jan Diehm Jada Watson reported that fewer than 0.5 percent of songs played on country radio in 2022 were by women of color and LGBTQ+ artists. But there Combs was on the stage, obviously moved by the moment as he sang with Chapman.
Yes, the political rhetoric and divisiveness are worse than ever. And yes this was just one moment in time on a stage, but the viral moment that it has become shows there’s a chance that We the People want more and will rise above the political gamesmanship and rhetoric.
I’ve felt for a long time that music can glue people together, multiply an audience’s energy and join us so that we are more than the sum of our parts.
Isn’t that what democracy in America should be?
Ultimately won’t the success of our nation rest on our ability to harness the tension of our differences and learn to work toward fulfilling the dream of the inalienable right to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness for all Americans?
And so as the dysfunction continues in the political world, with each side blaming the other, I am inspired by the coming together of two very different people who, for just that moment, took us all away from the divisions and hatred and blame game,to a moment of love and a sense of empathy.
If our democracy is to succeed, we must embrace our diversity, provide room for diverse perspectives and embrace our diversity as the operating system of our country.
I believe America is exceptional because from the outset its citizens saw themselves as participants in an experiment that would have implications for all of mankind.
The journey that is the United States started more than 200 years ago with the motto e pluribus unum: Out of many, we are one. That can become a reality.
As the lyric says, I have “a feeling we can be someone one.” But first “We’ve got to make a decision.”
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Let’s make that decision now. Let us fulfill the dream.
