From day to day, the pages of newspapers such as the Telegram & Gazette, TV and radio news, and websites and apps on our phones are all filled with stories that sound like emergencies. And that is for the most obvious of reasons: there are more than a few issues near and far which are in fact in the nature of crises.
The list is long, but a few of these are the COVID-19 pandemic (still with us though the experience and the challenge has changed), the war in Ukraine and relations with Russia (with all the suffering experienced there hour to hour, day after day), inflation pushing expenses locally and internationally to uncomfortable heights, homelessness, narcotics abuse, mental health needs in our population, climate change, and the scourge of gun violence constant in its delivery of unyielding injury, death, and deep grief.
These are first of all human crises. Those who suffer from any of these are human beings, us. These are moral crises. They touch upon what is right and wrong, what is the ethical way to proceed, what are the choices to be made that will do the most good. Thirdly (though we often speak this way first), these are political crises.
They are political crises because the way a people chooses to organize its common life is the work of politics. Politics is the shared search for an agreed-upon manner of living.
The work of being and becoming fully human, the task of recognizing what is morally right and pursuing it, and the labor of making political choices are all ongoing. They are all part of the mission we receive in life, both as individuals and as groups gathered in our homes, in City Hall, in our houses of worship, in legislatures, and in conversations over coffee with friends.
In other words, we have a shared responsibility from which none of us can be absolved. We are responsible for facing the challenges of each day, the emergencies of this hour, the crises of this period of time. We are responsible for one another. Together we share responsibility for what can be called the common good.