I was driving my daughter to soccer the other day, enjoying the altogether rare silence in the car (and in my life in general) when, out of the murky quiet, my daughter's 7 year-old voice asked "mommy, what's a blue state?" A poet at heart (though utterly without talent,) I began formulating answers about sadness and desperation, when I looked at the car in front of us and saw the bumper sticker, "Proud To Live In A Blue State." Given the other bumper stickers, I quickly tossed my poetic pontifications in order to address the political polemic, and I sighed. I was, at that moment, feeling sad and desperate indeed.

I am not proud to live in a blue state. I wouldn't be proud to live in a red one either. I am desperately in search of a purple state. A state where people don't suffer the delusion that the segregation of blue and red is any better than that of black and white. I am a purple person. A half-breed, a political mulatto. I am also quite sure that, if we sat and thought about - or had the courage to really talk about it - we are all purple people. And it's time to come together. Now.
To listen to the bumper stickers, political ads, debates and diatribes, you would think that the future of our country lies in the hands of a handful of people. In some ways, that would be nice, as it would absolve us all of any responsibility whatsoever for the state of affairs in which we live. But really, that is terrifying and misguided. If we allow ourselves to truly believe that our collective future rests in the hands of the handful of people in political office, then we should be afraid. So let's not believe that, because it isn't true anyway.

The only thing that is true, in all the rhetoric, is that we are a nation divided. We have taken sides against each other and against ourselves. We have allowed our convictions to sentence us to becoming a nation at odds with ourselves.
While it's true that, throughout history, nothing has united people like a common enemy, we can just as easily be united by a common cause. Fight poverty by supporting education, don't wait for someone else to do it. Create beauty by supporting the arts, don't wait for someone else to do it. And create a more caring universe by caring, don't wait for someone else to do it.
Just as importantly, we cannot accept the steady digression to a world in which dialogue is replaced with diatribe. Any difference of perspective has the potential to turn into life-altering discussion, greater than the sum of its parts. Honest questions (rather than superficial accusations) can result in discussions that reveal working answers. Let's talk, not yell. Let's listen and think. When we do, we will see how much we all have in common.

We all - republicans and democrats - want a safe world for ourselves, our children, our grandchildren. None of us want to keep averting our eyes at the homeless people standing on street corners with cardboard pleas. We all want to be able to breathe in clean air, to listen to great music, to feel free, happy and safe.

The divisive folks amongst us like to show maps of the states divided red and blue. Every now and then, however, you see a more realistic map, one in which red and blue is broken down by county, or even neighborhood. With those maps, if you squint, it's just purple, which is much more realistic, because we are not as divided as we would like to think. Our common ground, in many cases, is the property line between our homes. Perhaps that common ground is where we should come together and talk about the things that really matter to us - not just the political parties that want to claim us.

For me personally, and certainly as the "heart and soul" of JUST CAUSE magazine, that common ground is where I live. Sometimes my democratic friends screech at me with exasperation and say "argh, you sound like a republican." Likewise, my republican friends shudder and say "you're so damned liberal." Yes. The blood in my veins is both blue and red.

Here's what it gets down to, and I will offer it simply as my opinion. As country, we are faced with incredible hardships right now. We are all, every one of us, responsible for getting ourselves into these messes - explicitly, implicitly or complacently. Likewise, we will all have to work together - and here, explicitly is the only way it will work - to get ourselves out of the messes. In public schools across our country, individuals and corporations are coming together to provide funding for programs that the government has cut. Regardless of your feelings about the budget cuts, you have to be proud when these people come together, without asking about race, religion or political affiliation, and just fix the problem. The same can be said about environmental initiatives, healthcare, and everything else you can name. And when you stop trying to label people and issues as republican or democrat, we all want the same thing. We want to live in a world that takes care of its citizens, that is safe, that is secure, that is healthy and that we can be proud to call home. That's a purple world.

IF, and it's a bit IF, anything good can be found in the devastation of Hurricane Katrina and the Southeast Asian Tsunami before that, it is that millions of people and billions of dollars have all intermingled to solve a problem. No one is asking if the people whose homes are being rebuilt are republicans or democrats. Nor is anyone asking if the people who are building them are republican or democrat. The only question being asked is "what can I do?" I love the way that sounds!

As for the blue and red thing. I vote purple. I continue to be terrified of the purple people eaters - those people who perpetuate this bi-color theory of things. I look at the world through purple glasses - glasses that allow me to focus on what we have in common and work for the greater good.

So, for those of you who keep asking if we at JUST CAUSE are conservative or liberal, republican or democrat, traditional or revolutionary, I have a one-word answer. YES. We are all that, and more. Our personal voting records aside (which, I can assure you, run the gamut), we are about the hopes that unite us, not the labels that divide us. And that's a promise. (Oh what promise we have!)