Reforming America: Focusing on Similarities

"A house divided against itself cannot stand" - Abraham Lincoln

One of the biggest problems we have in America is our constant need to divide ourselves. We find any number of ways to prove that we are different than other people but it seems to take a major crisis for us to find our common humanity. Perhaps it is the now constant election process or the advent of the 24 hour news cycle or maybe the growing gap between those who have and those who do not but whatever the reasons Americans are becoming more and more divisive. We divide ourselves along many lines including ethnic, religious, political, economic, gender, sexual orientation and more and to make sure we are divided we break out into subgroups of our groups to the point where we basically are against everyone that isn’t a carbon copy of ourselves.

It is past time for America to rediscover its commonality and put aside the petty differences that divide us. Our greatest moments as a nation have come when we stood as one nation, spoke with one voice and acted as one people driven by a common desire for freedom and liberty for all mankind. We have been great in the past when we came together. Conversely, our darkest moments have come during times of division and conflict. Even now as we head into another contentious election we are drawing “battle lines” and “shoring up our positions”. Gone is the idea of civil debate. It has been replaced with a modern-day Samurai view of politics as a war with the fate of our nation at stake. The truth is that it is just another election with the same basic cast of characters as we have seen for decades. Regardless of which party controls Congress there will continue to be increasing rancor in America until we stop focusing on our differences and begin to build on our similarities.

The thing that many seem to forget or simply not understand is that we are being manipulated by both sides of the political aisle not for the betterment of America as a nation but to maintain the status quo to a large degree. As long as the people are fighting amongst ourselves we are not focusing on the actions of the people in power. When was the last time you looked at the language of a law passed by Congress to see how it might affect you? If you are like most Americans, probably never. That is exactly how the people in power stay in power. We fight about abortion and they give our tax dollars to billionaires with absolutely zero return for the American people. We fight about the issues politicians and pundits manufacture while they laugh all the way to the bank.

Let there be no doubt, there is an “Us vs. Them” situation in America but is not about abortion or guns or immigration. It’s about power, money and greed. As long as we remain distracted by the non-issues we are told are of vital importance we will continue to be under the thumb of invisible oppressors that live in opulence as a result of our efforts.

We need a revolution of thought in America. We have been distracted for so long that we have lost sight of the things that made our nation great to begin with. We need to remember that the greatest thing about democracy is the ability of the people to speak with one voice for all the world to hear. We need to say no to hate and reject the divisiveness of the political machines of the left and right. We need to reject extremism in every form and we need to focus on finding solutions to the problems facing our nation. We all eat, we all sleep, we all care what happens to our families. We all can understand the basic humanity of our fellow man if we just stop and take the time to actually think about it. Of course we can find differences. Finding differences is easy. Finding consensus is much harder but in the end much more rewarding and much more necessary for the long term health of a free country. Regardless of where we came from we are all here now and we need to learn to live together because if we don’t we will surely be the instruments of our own demise.

Troy Wilson-Ripsom | Staff Writer | E-mail Comments on this column. | Click icon to Digg this article

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