It is time to stop thinking of this country as the “United State.” We are not united, the civil war never ended, and we are still north vs south. In addition, we have added west vs east, liberal vs conservative, plus numerous other divisions too many to name. There is not such thing as “My Fellow Americans,” because no one thinks of themselves as Americans anymore. We are white, black, brown, yellow, Republican, Democrat, liberal, progressive, conservative, Christian, Evangelical, non-Christian, goodness there are so many divisions it would take up the entire post to list them all. Something needs to change before we are doomed to collapse.
We need to begin to consider the dissolution of this country into areas where the many individual groups clamoring for attention can live in peace. Such a plan would require the dividing up of the country into several parts and giving each area their own governing body to address the issues of the area and people. It might mean a mass removal and resettlement program for each area to have the appropriate people who might, might mind you, live in harmony.
For example, the southern states such as North and South Carolina, Georgia, Florida, and Alabama might be for far-Right conservatives. Middle of the road conservatives might be resettled in Kentucky, Tennessee, Arkansas, and Mississippi. Liberals might want the Northeastern States, or the Pacific northwest. Of course, you would have to taking the division of west vs east there. You just might end up with 2 liberal or progressive areas. Of course, resettlement would cause some problems, but the government has plenty of experience in that area. Given our experience with Native populations, and Asian Americans.
Of course, I am being facetious, on some level. Not the part about being a “United States” or “dissolution of this country, just about the rest of it. We are the Divided States of America. I am not sure I have talked, or read about, anyone calling themselves American first in a very long time. Everyone has a group, a section of the population that they belong to. All these groups have their own grievances, wants, needs, desires for their little group, and their little group is the most important all the rest are secondary. No one, except maybe a few occasionally, has considered what is best for America as a whole. Why is that? Can we please begin to see ourselves as Americans first and all the other designations as secondary?
Every person in this country is important regardless of their skin color, their gender, their ethnic makeup, economic status, culture, age, or physical ability. Each one adds to the whole of this country. We need each, and every, person to step up and recognize the value of every other person. The wealthy need to recognize they are dependent on the people they employ. The workers need to recognize the imaginative abilities of their employers. Shop keepers need people to buy their goods and they can’t sell them if the population has no money.
We are dependent on each other to progress scientifically, economically, and academically. Until we begin to accept that and start seeing ourselves as one people, as Americans this country is doomed to either dissolve, or become an autocracy with people like Donald Trump as our own “Hitler.” Is that the goal for the people of this country? If Trump should win again, or someone like him this country will dissolve, and the Great American experiment will come to an end.
We are in this together, every single person in the country. What happens depends on us, on whether we have the courage to be Americans, to draw together and explore and how our individual needs benefit the country, the people of this country, as whole. Until we see each other as equals, see the individual, or group, as just as important as every other individual and group nothing will change. Can we do It? I don’t know and honestly, I have my doubts.
Ruth Jewell, ©January 30, 2022
Image from Bing Images
A Quiet Walk 