A House Divided

   The nation is divided, but we need not be at odds with each other...at least not to the disturbing extreme some seem to be taking the issues. Clearly there are differing opinions on a variety of issues facing our great nation. It gets murky when people start talking of officially dividing the nation...a step back in time, and start enacting violence upon their fellow citizens, even family! We have seen brother-against-brother before and it was as tragic then as it is now.

   Everybody is never going to agree on every point of any candidate that runs for the highest office in the land. There will always be those that think differently. It’s this diversity in thinking that makes this country as great as it is. When I was growing up, it was taught that America was the melting pot of the world. Now it seems that pot has been simmering too long, and some of the good stuff has started to burn. This last election cycle has revealed some disturbing ingredients.

   There is currently a call by a few, and by “few” I mean in comparison to the total population of the country, to secede from the union. There are some that dismiss this, since it’s only a “few”...but that number ranges in the hundreds of thousands collectively, and that has never been a small number from my point of view. Despite that, the inception of this is a divided country, so although the majority of those at odds with the half of the country that were victorious are not seceding, we are now living in a house...divided.

   Politics is a passionate subject. I’d say this is quite obvious now as it seems to trump passion associated with finding a mate. I know emotions are still running high, but let me just say that the world is not coming to an end just because the President won a second term. I mean, if the world comes to an end...it was always going to happen anyway right? That’s what the Mayans said...and don’t get me started on the Book of Revelations!

   I heard the story of Holly Solomon, the woman that made headlines by running her husband over because of her disdain for President Obama...whom her husband didn’t even vote for. The worse tragedy here is the people (and there are surely some) that agree with her actions and her motives behind them. Daniel Solomon sustained life-threatening injuries for a vote he never cast, and even if he had, would have ultimately failed to get President Obama the win in the state of Arizona. Holly’s fear was that the President’s second term was going to create hardship for her family. The reality is she herself has created that hardship by nearly killing her husband. The real point is that despite political differences, we still need to be one nation. The Solomon family was a house divided...now a house destroyed.

   As if petitions for secession and family turning on family isn’t enough...there are actual cries for civil war. To clarify, every petition I’ve have seen about secession has been worded as a peaceful act of separation. The problem there is the last time it happened, it was anything but peaceful. Outright acts of civil war are downright insane (in my opinion) and although I’ve had to face the election of a president I did not vote for, did not want...and ultimately (and arguably) was bad for the country, I have never considered the option that my state should not be a part of the country. I never considered committing acts of violence on anyone that didn’t vote as I did...not even when we didn’t find any weapons of mass destruction. Now...the suggestion to take up arms en masse against other citizens...over an election? I'm going to have to pull the insanity card on this one.

   No matter what the future holds, every American is now in the boat together, with one President and one Congress to hash things out. We should do all we can as citizens to facilitate that...and continue to let the process work in the next election cycle. Today, we may be a house divided, but that’s no reason to be a house destroyed tomorrow.

http://gawker.com/Holly-Solomon/