"United we stand"?

“…‘Every kingdom divided against itself will be ruined, and every city or household divided against itself will not stand.’” – Matthew 12:25

Let me first preface this note by saying that I’m not a big fan of now President-elect Obama because a) he’s about as qualified for president as I am to be a Division-I head football coach and b) his proposed policies don’t make much sense for our country. That being said, he will be *our* president in less than four months, as I am called as an American and a Christian to support him, and I will do so.

Let me also say that I am guilty of many of the divisive infractions (if only in thought) that I will (below) challenge us as a people to rid ourselves of. Too often have I judged the entire Democratic party, any even liberals as a whole as “self-serving and not having the interested of our country at heart”. Truth is, people on both sides of the aisle are self-serving and/or don’t have American interests at heart (which is why I consider myself an independent and don’t support a candidate based on a R or D in front of his or her name).

What I have witnessed over the last few years is a country truly divided. You name the issue, and people are up in arms and taking sides, even trampling each other to get there. People are divided over the War on Terror. Abortion. Guns. Universal health care. The role of the government. God. These are just a few. Whatever your position on these issues may be, I think we can all agree that our nation as a whole has become polarized in many (if not all) of these areas.

Where does this division come from, you ask? It starts with us as individuals. Since the founding of our nation, we have slowly drifted away from the values that we were originally founded upon. Values like individual freedom (speech, religion, assembly, etc.), respect for life and people in general, patience, trust, fighting for loved ones and values, courtesy, honesty, hospitality, kindness, and most importantly, personal responsibility (God knows we have a huge deficit in that department).

Out of this lack of individual effort and perseverance, our culture has developed into one that lacks many of these “American” values. Out of this culture we have bred selfish and power-hungry politicians, incompetent and agenda-driven reporters, and a political system more concerned about, for example, pushing for a college football playoff than say, fixing the drought (see: GA legislature circa January, after the BCS “debacle”).

Why is division so easy? I’m not entirely sure, but I’ll venture a guess. As humans, we want to find ways to make us think we are better than some person or group of people. We do this to make ourselves feel more important.

As of right now, our country is so, so far from being unified. A few examples:

-We cannot have unity in a country that votes for or against a candidate solely based on his or her skin color.

-We cannot have unity in a culture that values animals and trees over people and their needs.

-We cannot have unity when we blame the plight of the poor on the successes of the rich, then have a tax and welfare system which makes this gap even wider by removing incentive to be financially independent.

-We cannot have unity in a society that uses stereotypes such as “rednecks”, “hippies”, “blue-collar/white-collar”, “working class”, “less fortunate”, “greedy”, and “religious right”.

-Above all, we cannot have unity in a country where people can’t just be categorized as Americans, but have prefixes such as “African-American”, “White-American”, “Irish-American”, “Arab-American”, or “Latin-American”. Why can’t we all just be “Americans”?

My challenge to our President-elect is to truly desire and do what you can to create unity among all Americans. Not just the ones who voted for you, but for the ones who didn’t. Not just the Democrats, but the Republicans. Not just the liberals, but the conservatives. Not just the ones who don’t like firearms or religion, but the ones “clinging to their guns or religion”[1]. Not just your Anti-American pastor, but to the pastors around the US who tell their congregations of the great love that God has for each of us. I challenge you, Mr. Obama, to cross the aisle every now and then (at least more than 4% of the time [2]), and not side with your party just because it’s your party. Try to restore the unity that we once had as Americans.

My challenge to you (and myself) as a US citizen is to stand up for our country. Stand up for what you believe in. Stand up to the government who says that you are too incompetent to do things like take care of yourself on your own or defend yourself (see: most current social policies). Stand up to the politicians and others who think we should give up on a nation and culture who was under a cruel dictatorship and who still desperately needs our help. Stand up to those who marginalize our soldiers and call them invaders or crusaders. Stand up to those who have take taken for granted the freedoms that we constantly enjoy because men and women greater than them were willing to die for these freedoms. Stand up to the radical cultures that hate us because of the great things our country stands for, and the leaders of those cultures. Stand up to the politician(s) who care more about the interest group lobbyists than their country.

My worst fear is that it will take some terrible act for us to wake up and see this division that is so rampant among us. Will it take another September 11^th, 2001 for us to be united again? I certainly hope not. I would hope that we could be united as a nation as we were on September 12^th, 2001. How long must we go on as a divided nation before it’s too late?

That’s all I got for now. Apologies for the length, but I feel each part was crucial.

Sources:

1. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DTxXUufI3jA

2. http://projects.washingtonpost.com/congress/members/o000167/