Americia In Crisis

Why Can't We Get Along?: What Disturbs Me About America

Every time I log in to facebook, or Google Plus, it's  the same thing: We are divided, it seems, into two camps who cannot for the life of them say a civil word about each other.  Republicans and Conservatives look down their noses at anyone who does not agree with their business oriented view of America, and consider all Democrats and Liberals parasites and a drag on the country. They look at them as lowlife individuals who don't want to work for a living. The Democrats and Liberals, on the other hand, look at all Republicans and Conservatives as heartless, demonic souls who only look at the bottom line with no concern about the humanity that drives the economy of the country, and who want to control every aspect of a citizens life, while claiming to want less government. Both sides claim to have the best interest of the American People in mind. Both sides claim that the other side has distorted what America is supposed to be about. The hatred is palpable. It divides families and causes neighbors not to speak. It has spawned an underground movement that rumbles about civil war and secession because their side did not win in the election. There are threats of violence at every turn, and the media is divided into two armed camps who both distort the news to fit their diametrically opposed agendas. There is no end to this hateful war of words in sight. What worries me is that it could, one day, turn into something more than words.
  When I was a boy, we were taught that we were a nation that the rest of the world wished it could emulate. A democratic republic that, as Ronald Reagan once put it, was like that great city, shining on the hill, that everyone wished to go to. We were a great melting pot, where there was a great statue dedicated to liberty, with the inscription "Give me your tired, your poor,
Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free,
The wretched refuse of your teeming shore.
Send these, the homeless, tempest-tost to me,
I lift my lamp beside the golden door!'
 Now, we are a country in turmoil, more concerned with forcing our conflicting agendas on each other, than finding a way to compromise for the greater good of the nation as a whole. We have a group of people trying to make our country into a non-secular nation, when this was not what the founders intended. We, as a nation, were supposed to welcome all beliefs with no national religion, but you would believe differently, if some had their way. Yet, the Constitution clearly states, in the first amendment: Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof.
 What to do, to stop this anger and this madness? If we are to continue as a nation, we must find a way to get along and work together, not oppose each other at every turn. We cannot be a nation of people who can barely contain their disdain for the ideas of others. Acceptance and compromise are the keys for maintaining that idea of the city on the hill, of continuing to be the example of Emma Lazarus's  New Colossus. We need to find common ground, without losing our compassion for our fellow citizens. We need to help those who need it. Help them to pull themselves up. To kick them to the street is not only inhumane, it's un-American.
  I am a Proud American, and a Patriot who was not afraid to give myself to the service of this great nation, so before anyone calls me Un-American or  any other anti American name, you better think again. I was there, as my father was, when my country needed me, and I would do it all over again without a second thought. So, think, brothers and sisters, before you call each other nasty names; before you hurl threats and hatred at each other. Only a coming together will solve the ills of the United States of America. Only the real dedication of America's citizens will bring us through this crisis that threatens to tear us asunder. I, for one, want my grandchildren to continue to enjoy the freedoms of this great nation. Thank you all, and God Bless America.

John Zaffino January 31, 2013