Indivisible

Today is the day that we celebrate the birth of our country.  235 years ago, a bunch of dissidents signed a piece of paper stating that they were not going to take it anymore, and so this nation was (kind of) born.  And it was a good start.  We had a pretty good constitution, and we were filled with people who were smart, hard-working, and willing to do whatever it took to make this country great.  Those must have been good times.

Now, it is a national holiday, and I am not going to say nasty things about our country in this space on this day.  What I do want to say, however, is this: The people who formed this country, and who fought and died for our freedom, worked really hard to get this country into a good place.  The United States of America is not a great country just because that’s the way it is and the way it always has been.  It’s because a bunch of people (even people who often didn’t like each other) made it that way.  You, me, all of us, have been handed a gift.  We live in a place where we don’t have to worry about finding clean drinking water, we worry about finding a decent wi-fi connection.  We don’t wonder whether the government will come in the night and take our homes, or our families, we worry that our income tax might go from 28% to 31%.  Regardless of all its problems, this is a fairly nice place to be, compared to much of the rest of the world.

That being said, it is our job to keep it that way.  I have seen, in my opinion, a steady decline in the overall greatness of our country.  And it is not because of Republican viewpoints, and it is not because of Democratic viewpoints.  It is not because we don’t have smart, good people around.  It’s because those people can’t seem to work together.

The job of the politician is to stay in office, and they work towards that goal.  It seems the best way to do that these days is to demonize the opponent and their party.  So what I’m saying is, basically, cut it out.  Just stop.  While the Democrats are concentrating on keeping a senatorial majority, and the Republicans are concentrating on making sure Obama is not reelected, our nation’s schools are in disarray.  The rich get richer, the poor get poorer, and all those smart, hard-working people that make up this great nation are unemployed, sitting in their underwear reading blogs and news sites that tell them that all of their problems are caused by the other half of America.

Wake up America.  We are ONE nation.  We are Indivisible.  We are supposed to be providing liberty and justice for ALL, not just our friends and those of a similar political mindset.  We have all the ingredients for the most delicious country the world has ever known, but instead of making that recipe, we are engaged in a food fight.  We are watching other countries pass us in education, in workforce, and in innovation.  So today, of all days, let’s think about what makes our country great, and what is going to make it great in the future.  It’s going to take all of us, and it’s going to be a lot of work and cooperation, but our forefathers deserve nothing less.  Now let’s go eat hot dogs and watch things explode.