America is Changing - Can We Unite Again?

September 12, 2001, was a painful, yet amazing day. The heinous attack on our country the day before that was supposed to cripple us, united us like we hadn’t been for a long time.

That unity didn’t last long. While the terrorists used planes to try and destroy us, it has been our own voices that have divided us more than ever before. Anger, hate, and the loss of respect have been tearing our country apart.

Rick Sapp’s blog article asks some provoking questions - I don’t necessarily agree with them all, but I respect the points he is making.
https://www.usconcealedcarry.com/blog/america-is-changing/

America is changing, how do we unite again?

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He didn’t say it but I will. If the socialist gain power we go to war. THAT is the reason we have a 2A. It’s not for hunters, or target shooters or even CC/OC carriers. It is there to PROTECT THE SECURITY OF A FREE STATE. Socialism does not protect freedom.

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I’ll agree with you on that.

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I don’t know that we can. Seems the challenge is that the extremists/alarmists on both sides are the ones that get all the publicity from mainstream media and the demand for people to choose one side or the other and people fall into that trap.

It’s not black/white…there’s a whole lot of gray out there. Almost everything is situational. But we don’t act/think like it anymore. It will take a combination of our coming to that recognition AND our training our youth to think like that.

Right now, I’m not even sure a nuclear attack (heaven forbid) on the US would unite us. It would immediately devolve into the blame’otics (new word I just made up) what we did to deserve it, what we didn’t do to prevent it, what we’re doing/not doing to respond, whether that response was too much/little, etc etc.

Sadly…I think this is what Rome must have looked/felt like at the end of it’s reign. (sorry to be such a glass half empty guy this morning)

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Interesting phrasing, @JamesR. The extremists are getting mainstream publicity… That definitely is part of the problem IMO.

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You’ve got one side wanting to take and another tired of giving.

Listening to Pelosi say that Trump is a danger to the constitution all the while her party violates it with every new law they shove down our throats.

Being 100% honest we’ve been divided since the beginning of our country. We used to have our differences but would come together for the good of the country, but now one side seems to hate the country. Till they leave or turn around their hatred we have nothing in common to come together for.

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Like trying to buy back something you never owned, I don’t think we can unite again since we were never really united in the first place. We have come together with common purpose from time to time when facing truly national threats, but these are extraordinary situations rather than the norm.

All human beings, in America and everywhere else in the world, join together in bands, and gangs, and tribes, and communities. We do this for the safety and comfort to be found in the company of other people who think and speak as we do; who eat the same kind of foods, tell the same kind of jokes, sing the same kind of songs. We do it so we can live our lives with the confidence of familiarity, to minimize the unexpected, and to hear our views as a chorus instead of a solo.

From the beginning America had its factions. At the time of the revolution the country was divided roughly into thirds; one third supporting independence, one third supporting the crown, and one third taking neither position. We’ve always divided ourselves by customs and regions and occupations. City/country, factory/farm, north/south, east/west, mountaineers/flat landers, coastal/plains–you get the picture.

We haven’t lost our unity, we’ve lost our capacity to see people who are different as full-fledged Americans just like us. We’ve lost the ability to accept people who are different and good naturedly leave them the hell alone.

A long time ago I saw a movie in which a character from a foreign land was explaining about his people. He said, “We’re are separate and different, like fingers on a hand. But when our country is threatened we come together, like fingers make a fist, and we work together to defeat our enemies.” Not a bad way to ’ celebrate the diversity’.

I don’t think we, as a people, are all that different today than we were a hundred years ago. What has changed is the amount of space between us . In years gone by we might be annoyed by the person on the corner shouting his views through a megaphone. Today, everyone has a megaphone, and you can’t avoid them simply by walking on the other side of the street. You’d have to walk on another planet and even that may not work. Modern megaphones are too loud, too pervasive, too anonymous.

Live and let live can be a useful attitude to cultivate. Outside of certain bedrock principles of right and wrong, I am content to let others live as they see fit, make their own choices, suffer their own consequences. I leave them the hell alone and ask only the same in return.

We have always been a nation of differences; it is our greatest strength and our greatest weakness. Apparently there are today certain groups who seem to think they can perfect America if only they can make everybody…insert cause here.

America is not perfect, it’s just better than anyplace else. None of us should allow perfection to be the enemy of what is good.

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Without a common external threat for us to unite to combat we always revert to tearing the country apart from within.

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Very good points IMO, @David38!

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Historically, we have only united - and then only sort of, kind of united - against a common external enemy. Not everyone was 100% in favor of the Revolution, WWII or any other conflict. The chances of us even talking nice to each other across antipathetic topics is mighty slim. That is one of our strengths. We have been able to coexist with those whose opinions make us shake our heads for nearly 250 years without breaking apart. I’m not saying it will ever be so, but that track record is still pretty good.

I don’t know about the “again” part. My sincere hope is that we can unite. There is a common enemy, whatever you call them- socialists, the left, liberals, or marxists. I recall the line from INDEPENDENCE DAY where the President says “no longer can we be consumed by our petty differences…” I think that eventually we will have to decide whether we fight together or die alone. Are we brothers & sisters united in the cause of freedom or blacks & whites (color designations)? :v:t5:

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