Defusing a bomb doesn't start with the typical big movie action sequence that includes the meticulous task of cutting a red wire with the added drama of potentially tripping the green and yellow wires that are in the way. That's far too mundane. It's all in the preventative measures, never allowing the bomb to be built. At this very moment in America, we are standing at an assembly line with all the parts at our finger tips. Each of in our own diminutive area, preparing the doomsday device that will save the world . . . or so we've been told.
Most of us do not have an accurate concept of what it is that we are constructing. We just simply know that we must build. Because the people who aren't like us, are bad. The red states are bad, the blue states are bad, white people, black people, Asian, Latino, Indigenous, South East Asian, gay/straight, democrat, republican, independent; you name it, it's either them or us. And so we continue to build. The problem with this philosophy is that we forget. There is no them. There is only us. It's when we remember that, building the bomb is no longer an option. Tearing down the walls that separate us transcends our options, becoming the only solution.
Welcome to State of the Re:Union. Every week, we try to defuse a bomb. How do we do that? Each episode, we travel this great country of ours, focusing on one city and asking the question, how does that city, town or area, create a community? Who are the people that help make it? What are the issues they face? How does the culture of an area shape the people, and vise versa? It is the goal of this program to show Americans that behind all the separating walls we build, are people living there who are just like you, regardless of the location, religion, ethnicity or sex.
