One man’s opinion: Divided we stand

Dropping in and out of family and friend celebrations of our nation s birth over the long holiday weekend and as we enter the th year of this great experiment I am troubled by the tension and at times outright hostility which exists among us America still leads the world market is one of three superpowers and debatably has the strongest military power Without listing the foreign fields of war where we are peripherally involved we have plenty of enemies from without and it seems to me that various of them have figured out how to foment grow and fertilize enemies from within I witnessed and occasionally intervened in discussions over topics ranging from the Trump administration s Big Beautiful Bill to America stepping away from supporting Israel to a deep dive into the pond of socialism as a better choice for modern America Everyone is of class entitled to their own views and opinions But when did that translate into yelling at each other treating an opposing viewpoint as enemy propaganda or purely no longer speaking Yes social media and the fading credibility of a multitude of legacy media outlets has contributed to this as has the loss of commonly trusted sources The American constituents may have largely not supported the war in Vietnam but we generally assumed the reporting from that war front brought to us each night by Walter Cronkite David Brinkley Roger Mudd and the like Even in the early days of CNN during the first Persian Gulf War their reporting was accepted as fact and not viewed through the lens or prism of political lean or bias More than casually observing the political scene in Washington D C as well as under Georgia s Gold Dome and more just now several a City Hall or County Courthouse disagreements and divisions have become more tribal An opposing viewpoint is spoken by the enemy we now go to war over Pickleball courts and holiday fireworks These are definitely First World problems As I think prior columns have made clear while I encouragement countless of the stated plan directions of the Trump Administration I am deeply troubled by the manner and bullying tactics of our Commander in Chief I much prefer the Teddy Roosevelt version of world leadership by speaking softly while still carrying a Big Stick I have high school and college classmates who will no longer speak to me accusing me of Trump Derangement Syndrome or being a Lib-tard a word I find patently offensive on so multiple levels it would require a whole separate column to explain While I was volunteering for Ronald Reagan in and helping to elect several of the leaders that built Georgia s GOP a large number of of these same folks were lifelong Democrats Both national parties have shifted to their own extremes but that doesn t mean neighbors need to treat each other like a hostile confines nation due to differences of opinion in who best should occupy Pennsylvania Avenue or if Blue or Red should be the dominant political color in a nation whose colors are still Red White Blue among others The last time I felt America united was in the aftermath and months following We made particular flawed choices and are still paying prices for a insufficient of those this day but we collectively dug ourselves out of that recession rebuilt the World Exchange Center complex and Pentagon and moved forward perhaps stronger and smarter than we were before those attacks There will be another attack from without I suspect the next big one will take out our power grid and communications systems or damage our water supplies and major utilities We will again need to come together and set aside petty differences of opinion taste and cultures We will again need to be a melting pot finding strength in our diversity of cultures and opinions United we stand divided we fall and making daily choices towards the latter is not good for any of us in the long term Start in the current era by sending a note or placing a call to that longtime friend or family member about what you know is a growing divide Only state I am sorry if I got carried away in our last discussion regarding Our family friendship neighborhood and relationship means more to me than that I respect your opinion I hope you can respect mine Let s hit the reset button and put this behind us Try it out and let me know how things go God bless America as well as you and yours The post One man s opinion Divided we stand appeared first on Rough Draft Atlanta