Tule Fog, Politics, and Faith

I always enjoy the drive from Oakland to California’s Central Valley.  I love looking out of the car window as you drive down the highway and fields and orchards whizz by.  Yesterday the drive was different than I remembered it.  Due to heavy fog, I could barely see a few feet beyond the car window.  The valley was blanketed by thick fog-called tule fog by locals-typical of this time of year.  It gave the sensation of driving into oblivion, a feeling that at any moment the red rental car would sprout wings and we would fly off the face of the earth.  As we approached the prison, we could barely see the car in front of us.  We were worried that as we turned off of the highway that we would be hit by oncoming traffic.  Luckily, we were spared.

We sat on old furniture in a large dimly lit room-the power was out so the building was running on generators.  I at sat with an older woman inmate.  As she walked into the room, I was immediately struck by her grace; she had grandma kind of beauty.  We conducted a brief interview and then chatted about politics and social issues.  She keeps up to date on current events on a small TV in her room.  Without doubt, she knew more than about national politics, despite my morning efforts to read the Washington Post and New York Times.

As we pondered the state of the world over the course of hours, she told me not to give up hope for change.  She told me that she is Christian.  She supported Barack Obama, but is pro-life.  She didn’t pray for either candidate, but that prayed that the election would be according to God’s will.  She has faith that although we don’t know what will happen next, that God has a plan.

Two and a half hours from the suburbs of San Francisco, lost in this cloud of fog, sitting behind prison bars, I was struck by her faith: her faith that the world will change and that God has a plan for us.  She told me she bemoans the fact that the younger generation-my generation-lacks the respect and civility that was there when she was young.  We both agreed that there is a need for respectful, open discussion about ethical issues.  Perhaps if people with different views talked to each other, we could find better solutions to our country’s challenges.

I hope that as we approach the New Year, that we can continue to have these conversations with people from all walks of life-Christian and agnostic, old and young, Democrat and Republican.  As Christian Democrats, we can play a critical role in bridging the partisan divide and bringing civil discussion back into the arena of politics.