This snapshot was gathered in conjunction with the Museum on Main Street program at the Smithsonian Institution and its "Stories from Main Street" initiative. The project is intended to capture Americans' impressions and stories about their small-town and rural neighborhoods, waterways, personal memories, cultural traditions, work histories, and thoughts about American democracy. This story is from a group of narratives inspired by the Smithsonian traveling exhibition, "Voices and Votes: Democracy in America."
Ryk St. Vincent (00:00): The whole thing that we have right now in terms of the democratic process and all that, for the most part, when I talk to people and I talk to people all the time, I would rather talk to somebody than to do a lot of other things. When I go over here to the bakery where I have coffee, I can talk to 20 people in a day and be engaged in a long, long conversation with those 20 people over a course of a day about whatever the subject is. I'm that kind of guy who, I like getting that kind of information because it feeds my mind for creativity. So we have adults who came from children and somewhere along the line that child didn't get what they needed to become a fruitful, giving, caring, engaged adult in whatever capacity. Whether you're talking about voting, supporting their wife or their husband, being engaged in their own family or whatever. We're missing the boat. The human animal is the only animal that has a problem with its child. We're the only one. We're the only one.
(01:16): And we've got a situation right now where we're talking about voting, we're talking about what the President is doing, and we're talking about all these other things going on. And we should be trying to get to the quintessential question of how do we make better adults? You follow me? How do you make a better adult? Here's my philosophy. I believe that everybody on the planet, 7 billion people, I believe every last one of them is absolutely right about what they believe. They are absolutely right about what they believe. And when I run into that person, whoever they may be, my job is to get along with them. I don't care what religion, I don't care how tall they are, whether they have one or three legs, whether they are black or white, rich or poor, what color, doesn't matter. My job is to assume they are absolutely right about what they believe.
(02:17): Now we are in a small area, sitting table length apart, and I've got to get along with that person. I've got to get along with that person. And when that person leaves, the next time they see me, I want them to say, "Oh, here comes that guy." I want them to want to be in my space. What do I have to do to do that? What do I have to do to do that? I can't just do it then. I've got to be that way from the ... You can't paint your house today, Mr. Brown. It hadn't been painted in 40 years. You can't paint the whole house today. You should have been painting it a little bit at a time in the spring and the fall. Little bit here, a little bit there. You can't fix your car all at once. It's going to be expensive. You need to have maintenance on it all the time.
(03:15): Jimmy, your room needs to be cleaned up and it's going to be nine hours. You probably won't make it today. But if you had picked those socks up and put those things away and straighten that out, you'd be five minutes from getting your room straight whenever. So we need to get into that. We need to get into that. And it's got to do with this is the only planet that we know human beings can exist. So who are you or you or anybody else to say, I don't belong here. Where else do I belong?
Asset ID: 2023.02.15.b
Find a complete transcript at www.museumonmainstreet.org
