Political parties in this country have greatly divided the nation on almost every issue. Republicans and Democrats, especially in this current election cycle, have increasingly moved further away from each other, finding less middle ground on issues. While this is prominently displayed in Washington with our elected officials, it is most noticeable with the average person. Facebook is littered with posts from pages like The Comical Conservative or Occupy Democrats, who just attack the opposing view and politicians. As a country, we have toned out opposing views or try to attack them rather than embracing them with civility.
In the past few years, America has faced more than its fair share of tragedies, and last week was one that hit close to home. Last week, five police officers were killed and 11 were non-fatally injured. I made the mistake of getting on Facebook almost immediately after this horrific event reached national news, and what I saw was appalling. The suspects had not been caught, and Downtown Dallas was still an active crime scene, yet the event had been politicized rather than focusing on and mourning the death of these fallen heroic men and women. Rather than focusing on their fellow officers who had rushed toward gun fire to find the suspects, I saw many of my conservative friends on social media condemning the Black Lives Matter movement, as well as those who supported the movement. Rather than focusing on bravery and the lives of the fallen officers, I saw many of my liberal friends instantly calling for gun control legislation.
This has been a pattern with each and every tragedy that has occurred on American soil in the last few years. Rather than grieving as a nation on the events at hand, we instantly spin it to fit into our political ideology. We have to go back to United We Stand, Divided We Fall. A united United States in the face of tragedy is something we have not seen much of in recent times. It occurred in the wake of 9/11, but somewhere down the road we feel off the bandwagon.
In his farewell speech as president, George Washington warned us of the dangers that political parties could cause our nation. He saw the issue that they were presenting in the country at the time. I doubt he could have imagined, though, that they would have America by the throat like they do. Our Pledge of Allegiance uses the phrase, "One Nation, Indivisible" and, honestly, right now they are very hollow words. It is time we make those words mean something again.
