A Country Divided
There are a few of us that paid attention in History class I'm sure. Some of us found the past to be an interesting story to be read. It didn't really seem like more than that to me. It was simply a story about distant people doing things that were far and long away. American History was a bit more interesting to me, but only because it was something I could see, hear, and taste. It was about those things that surrounded me. My present was tied directly to what these people did only a couple of centuries past. The biggie for our class was the Civil War. What started it? There were a large number of reasons, but everybody always hangs onto the slavery issue. Human rights are as good a reason as you can get in my opinion to have a war. If people are being treated like so many oxen, then something is wrong in the world. States rights were another reason for the war though. Granted I don't agree with the rights they felt were infringed upon (the rights of the states to keep slaves), but nonetheless it was a matter of the federal government taking over the state and essentially telling them how things were going to run. Was it the best way to go about it? No I think they should have allowed the states to secede and then let them attempt to make their way without a trade agreement with the U.S.
What should have been done, or could have been done doesn't really matter. That is the past and we made our bloody way through that as a nation and we came out of it in one piece. Kudos to us for managing something that has killed many a nation. It is in fact the reason that so many struggling countries today have not been able to drag themselves out of poverty. Internal struggle is the key component to kill a country.
I have been watching the news and listening to the radio more often than usual. Trying to get a feel for how things were going to work with this health care overhaul. Let's call it what it is, it's a Health Insurance Reform. Will it work? That doesn't even matter. This whole debate on whether we could insure the uninsured is not what this has become. This debate has split our nation. Good or bad legislation aside, the fact that it's split us as a people makes this bad.
I've always thought of the U.S. as sort of like a bunch of fraternities of a college. They talk trash to each other, and they play tricks on each other. They even occasionally fight. The thing is that when there is somebody coming against their school they unite and for that time they are one school, one voice, one family.
We in the past have been that way. The states might differ on some things, but at the end of the day we are one voice, one country. We have managed to rise up and defend ourselves on countless occasions. We have defended those that needed us (and some that maybe didn't need us). We have been there to lend a helping hand when tragedy struck, and we have been there to offer our teachers, doctors, clergy, and military to those that wish to also live free.
Whether you agree or disagree with the package that is now passing doesn't matter anymore. What matters is that we divided on an issue once again. It wasn't slavery, and it hasn't yet become secession. It's turning into states rights. It will surely mean many court battles and propaganda. For the first time in my life, I don't feel like I have the right to be proud of being an American. I'm ashamed at what our politicians have done. They have portrayed us as simpletons, extremists, anti-American, Unamerican, socialists, communists, Marxists, militia and a few that I'm not going to put on here (they are just dirty).
All that's really left is to hope and pray that we make it through this as a nation. It's time for the fraternities to come together and sound off as one voice. We need to take this opportunity to reflect on what our values are. What matters to us, not just as a country but as a person. Is it really something good if half the people think it's bad? Is it really the answer to our problems? I want a Jimmy Stewart like figure in office. Honesty, integrity, those core values that are sadly missing from about 95% of our elected officials.
I can honestly say that I wouldn't have cared how the health care issue would have went if there would have been an overwhelming majority of people wanting the change that was being offered. The problem is that we didn't really know what the change was that they were looking for. We still don't know all of the details of this legislation. THAT'S what bothers me. We are being mislead, and I don't care who is doing the misleading, I just want it to stop.
It's time to mend some fences, I just hope we have our country when it is all said and done.
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