When divisions deepen, dig in to something shared

When people are confronted with enormous obstacles, it can be easy for them to feel overwhelmed, and perhaps even a little cynical.

In the United States, the events of the past few years, from the pandemic to social justice protests to contentious political campaigns, have laid bare divisions that have long been simmering beneath the country's surface.

For journalists, part of the job is to report such obstacles to our common life together. The ideological differences that have morphed into entrenched tribalism. People who retreat into media echo chambers and vilify those who hold opposing views. A fractured landscape where dialogue has been replaced by diatribe, and political compromise has mostly become a relic of a bygone era. We often view each other with suspicion, and as strangers.

But this is only part of the story. If the pandemic exposed the fault lines of mistrust, we at the Monitor also try to focus our journalistic lens on those who work to overcome these challenges, who seek to find the light within the human spirit when so much seems so dark.

Our cover story focuses on the efforts of an alliance of citizens in two small towns in the Pacific Northwest: Washougal and Camas, Washington. When protests, rancor, and violent rhetoric erupted in their communities, these residents resisted cynicism and despair, and decided to work to rebuild a fundamental building block of self-governance: trust.

Their approach was refreshingly simple: bring volunteers together, not to debate or protest, but to collaborate on shared endeavors that transcend political divides. Pick up trash, plant wildflowers, meet and have conversations. Such efforts, too, are happening in small ways across the U.S. As our reporter Stephen Humphries writes, "Small bands of volunteers are working to improve their quality of life, not only in their neighborhoods, but also in their hearts."

Perhaps these efforts pale before the enormity of the problems they seek to overcome. And perhaps we've heard it plenty of times before, this urgent need to seek common ground. But that's not stopping the people we meet in this story, who decided to rub shoulders, get dirt under their fingernails, and make their towns a better place to live, together.