It is no secret that the United States is as polarized and divided as ever. Just watch either Party's National Convention and let the mudslinging and political pandering fill the screen. The death of two Florida teenagers and the injuries of several more at the Club Blu Night club after a teen night, left me sad and frustrated by such senseless violence. Honestly, I'm sick of all the kidnappings, gun violence, political partisan crap, and international strife. It's hard not to feel helpless as I sit on my couch in America unable to help the little girls in the nation of Malawi that will be brutally raped as a part of a ritual cleansing.
However, I am heartened in the knowledge that eventually, our national and global situation will improve or at least change. Of course, this doesn't mean that we sit on our hands in complacency and do nothing. On the contrary, we must actively seek solutions to the problems that plague our country and world. These don't have to be big, cumbersome solutions initially, because monumental change is incremental. Volunteer at an after school program and be a positive role model for a child. Donate nonperishable food items to your local food pantry. Become active in a political movement on your campus and in your community; however, make it a point to listen to the opposing side in order to come up with viable solutions together. Last semester, I studied the impact of the 1970s as a whole on American history and culture. As a class, the majority of us agreed that the 1970s were a decade of political and racial turmoil, but a collection of necessary growing pains for the country to move toward our modern sensibilities and lifestyles. Surely, we are following this pattern and even if we're not, we were not the first people to adopt the doom-and-gloom mentality or the cliched notion that the world is going to hell in a hand basket. In fact, in 1881, the American public probably felt as fearful and disillusioned as we do now.
Indeed, on July 2, 1881, the 20th President of the United States, James A. Garfield, was gunned down at the Baltimore and Potomac Railroad in Washington, D.C. by a disgruntled, former political backer, Charles Guiteau. Guiteau was fanatical about receiving compensation in the form of a diplomatic post in Paris. After a rejection by the Garfield administration, the only satisfying retribution was to kill Garfield. After eleven weeks of agony, Garfield would succumb to his injuries. A year later, the passage of the Pendleton Act, which prohibits the appointment of people to civil service positions based on party affiliation rather than merit, would try to rectify the partisan actions in the government . It always seems like it takes a tragedy for the government to take action on an issue. We still haven't learned.
Americans and the rest of the world survived the Great Depression through the New Deal and Marshall Plan. If the country can heal from Richard Nixon's Administration, we can overcome our political turmoil. We just need foresight to not make the same mistakes as before and courage to endure problems ahead. Alice Paul, one of my American heroes, aware of the personal cost of her fight for women's suffrage, did not give up even when she was imprisoned and abused. She lived to see the 19th amendment ratified and our country is better because of women's suffrage.
No, these examples in history don't calm all my fears, but I do feel more confident for the future, because ordinary people participated in protests, the government, and local community outreach to promote change. It will be okay; our situation will improve, but we have to be proactive in a constructive way.
