One line from Obama’s eulogy of Senator John McCain captures a kind of leadership we can see when we scroll through our memories, but too rarely in today’s news feed.

“We never doubted that we were on the same team. For all of our differences, we shared a fidelity to the ideals for which generations of Americans have marched and fought and sacrificed and given their lives. We considered our political battles… an opportunity to serve as stewards of those ideals... we saw this country as a place where anything is possible...”

This perspective is often missing from Congress, certainly from the White House, and it is missing in our local discourse, too.

Obama and McCain knew that despite their differences, they were collaborators, not enemies. Even when they each sought the same position to lead the American people out of economic tragedy and out of military conflict, they were doing so on the same team. Our nation’s team.

One can advocate purely and passionately for the philosophical approach and the platform of a political party and still hold those with different views in the Light and seek a better country for them and all. John and Barack knew this. 

They knew that to vilify, scapegoat or ignore the other was a disservice to the task at hand. The United States of America is a vast and diverse place with competing interests and challenging, often conflicting obstacles in our path. But isn’t that the point of America?

Isn’t that the promise of America? Isn’t this what we’ve been saying for generations?

“One Nation, Indivisible, With Liberty And Justice For All.”

We are not rivals in a permanent civil war; we are one team: Team USA. This is often easier to see, and say, when we zoom out to the national view and the people are far removed from our day-to-day lives. But it’s critical we look closer to home.

Our town is a microcosm of this. We are all Team Barrington. As I sat next to Chief Correia during the recent School Committee meeting as they discussed the new SRO policy — a topic about which we have each publicly stated contrasting views — we sat together in harmony, knowing we each want students and staff in our schools to be safe.

And when debates unfold online about how to oppose the Belton Court permit — a single project that would increase the number of homes in Barrington by more than 5 percent — and who is to blame for how we got to this place, or for the process by which it will be approved or denied, we need to remember that it is the aggregation of our shared ideas, questions, and compromises that cultivate a lasting and resilient culture. We must keep in mind that we are all passionate about this because we all live together, here, in one community. And, when whatever ends up being built at Belton Court is built, the residents there will be our neighbors, too. 

When we fail to treat our neighbors as ourselves, or worse, vilify one another, we lose the opportunity to improve our town. We turn off a light that could shine brightly for us all.  

We should all keep in mind that we compete today not against each other, but with each other, against our past iterations. Barrington is more today than a farming community or brick-making town. Our predecessors strove and we can continue to strive to be better tomorrow — in our advocacy and governance, and perhaps most importantly, in our daily conversations with one another.

Jacob Brier (they/them) is an HR consultant, independent insurance agent, and community organizer, living in Barrington with their wife and son.