This recent comment on Facebook hit home, and it led me to some observations:
YOU KNOW, FOLKS,
I never cared that you were gay or trans, until you started shoving it down my throat.
I never cared what color you were, until you started blaming me for your problems.
I never cared about your political affiliation, until you started condemning me for mine.
I really never even cared where you were born, until you wanted to erase my history and blame my ancestors for your problems.
I never even cared if your beliefs were different than mine, until you said my beliefs were wrong.
But now I care; my patience and tolerance are gone, and I am not alone in feeling like this. There are millions of us who feel like this.
In war, the objective is to kill our enemies. However, when we engage in public discourse, our intent should not be—and I hope it is not—to provoke extremists into harming or killing those we disagree with. The most important 'Right' we have as Americans is freedom of speech. Its importance was so evident to a viable Republic that it is the very first Amendment to the Constitution.
Martin Luther King famously said, "I have a dream that one day this nation will rise up and live out the true meaning of its creed: We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal…"
Well, I have an idea how to get there: It is quite simple, really—stop the divisiveness:
We are not black people, white people, brown people, red people, yellow people, etc.
We are not Catholics, Presbyterians, Methodists, Muslims, Mormons, etc.
We are not gay, bi, trans, etc.
We are not those crazy leftists, that MAGA crowd, left-wing lunatics, far-right radicals, etc.
We are not Irish, Italian, German, Mexican, Guatemalan, etc. (though that may be our heritage).
We may be any combination of these, but first and foremost, we are Americans, and we should be proud of that.
Our forefathers came from all over the world to this country with a dream to be free and help build a nation. They learned a language that was foreign to many of them, and most importantly, they assimilated. Yes, we have strong ethnic enclaves in many of our cities, but these immigrants integrated into their communities while maintaining their heritage.
As a nation, we welcome legal immigrants, but we must encourage them to integrate into American society and adopt our core values while adding their own cultural heritage to the diverse fabric of America.
"Prove Me Wrong"
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