The Culture of Our National Divide

Hello again to all my readers! Been a while! Although I haven’t posted for a while, it doesn’t mean that I have not been reading, watching, thinking, researching and writing :). In fact, all of these enriching, mentally demanding but enjoyable tasks are also quite time-consuming, as I am sure you all well know.

One of the more challenging patterns I have discerned, at least for me, is that the sheer volume of information and the barrage of  daily events, both minor and major, often serve to distract my mind from the particular task at hand. My primary goal in maintaining this blog remains as I describe on my main page: To define and discuss how the founding of our nation, and its’ subsequent  journey to survive, came so perilously close to failure and destruction in the 18th century, and how the incredible men and women of those days dealt with all of the insurmountable odds against success.

Those distractions I mentioned are not necessarily always a bad thing. I have often found inspiration for this blog’s topics and examples from current events. In fact, they tie in to my thesis very nicely and help me to illustrate what I contend in my words. Despite the constant barrage of events and information that relate to who and what we are as a people and a nation, the discouraging heartbreak we all have recently been subjected to, the incessant whining of the news media, the schoolyard recess in our nation’s Capital and on and on ad nauseam, in the 18th century our nation faced obliteration and non-existence from the troubles of those times!

That’s precisely why it’s so important to really learn about the founding of the United States of America. It gives not only a perspective on the troubles of our own time, but also gives us all the awareness that we CAN and WILL do whatever is necessary to resolve the sources of our national divide. And let’s face it, there are many.

Like you, I have my own opinions about some of the more wrenching and difficult sources of division in our country. I have my own political leanings and religious beliefs. I have my own opinions about the stands that other people take on a variety of issues. But one thing that seems like simple, basic logic to me is the fact that, in order for our nation and our way of life to survive and continue to thrive, we MUST be willing to first acknowledge the differences among us. Next, we MUST learn to tolerate the existence of those differences. We must then be willing to listen to those earnest and sincere people who hold those differences. And finally, we MUST make our cogent and fact-based arguments to each other without impugning the integrity or motive of those who disagree with us.

To be clear, I am well aware that not EVERY person we encounter, or institution we interact with, is going to be so level-headed and embrace this philosophy. We certainly do have to accept the fact that there are just some people who are simply not willing or perhaps capable of taking this approach. When you do encounter that, it is probably best to limit your conversation to the weather!

I am also well aware that, if you are a news-junkie like me, you may get the impression from the breathless, non-stop media reporting frenzy, that my recommendations are naive or impossible to achieve. That is the culture of our national divide. The truth is that our nation is full of caring, thoughtful, passionate citizens who love this country and ARE willing to solve problems together, even with those with whom we disagree.

That was the spirit of the founding men and women of 18th century America. They built a grand and wonderful country through far more divisive and dangerous times. Now it’s OUR turn. Our task is to preserve this incredible nation!!!

In future posts, I will discuss how we can do that, and present some very wise words and descriptions of events from those dangerous times that we can use in the 21st century!