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 financial sector 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 lesson 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 just no longer speaking Yes social media and the fading credibility of multiple legacy media outlets has contributed to this as has the loss of commonly trusted sources The American masses may have largely not supported the war in Vietnam but we generally inferred 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 of late a great number of 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 endorsement plenty of of the stated protocol 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 a great number of levels it would require a whole separate column to explain While I was volunteering for Ronald Reagan in and helping to elect chosen of the leaders that built Georgia s GOP multiple 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 dividing line 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 certain flawed choices and are still paying prices for a limited of those in the modern day but we collectively dug ourselves out of that recession rebuilt the World Transaction 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 nowadays by sending a note or placing a call to that longtime friend or family member about what you know is a growing divide Exclusively state I am sorry if I got carried away in our last discussion regarding Our family friendship population 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