Open your eyes

The World Series just wrapped up. Game 7 was the kind of night that reminds you what this country still gets right. No spin. No talking points. Just people, locked in, focused, giving everything they had.

For a few hours, it didn’t matter who you voted for or what news feed you scroll. It was about effort, teamwork and heart. The kind of story that unites people all over the world. And for a moment, you could feel it, what we’ve been missing.

Then you turn on the news or open your phone, and that feeling disappears. Every headline is designed to make you mad at someone. Every post tells you who to hate next. We’re being fed division like it’s breakfast.

And I keep asking myself, why? Who benefits from keeping Americans angry at each other? Who wins when trust disappears and people stop talking? Because I don’t think it’s us.

Most people I meet, Republican, Democrat, Independent, doesn’t matter, want the same things. They want safety. Stability. Fairness. A future for their kids. That’s the common ground we keep walking away from.

We’re letting other people profit off our anger. That’s the truth.

I lead a health care organization. I see people at their best and their worst. I see the moments when politics doesn’t matter, when someone is sick, when a family’s scared, when a nurse holds a patient’s hand. Those moments still exist everywhere. They remind me who we really are underneath all the noise.

We’re good people caught in a bad cycle. We can change that. But it starts with paying attention to how we’re being played.

Stop letting fear and outrage drive your choices. Talk to people who see the world differently. Ask what they care about instead of assuming what they think. Build something. Volunteer. Vote for leaders who listen more than they talk.

If we want this country to heal, we have to stop acting like enemies.

The World Series showed what’s still possible. A nation, millions of people, across borders, tuned in to a shared story that had nothing to do with politics and everything to do with being human.

We need more of that. We need moments that remind us we’re still on the same team.

Open your eyes. Pay attention to what’s real.

Because what happens next is up to us.

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Mike Baker is CEO of Heritage Health in Coeur d’Alene and host of the podcast Still Here, Still Trying.