If Only

THE RECENT ELECTION, and all the arguing, yelling, and name calling leading up to it, provided clear evidence of the divided nature of the american people, and many of us talk about and lament this division, sometimes coming up with hairbrained ideas about how to rectify or improve national unity and harmony.

Amidst all this, its easy to forget that  the united states of america has basically never been a united country, and quite possibly, never will be. And maybe it shouldn't be. Maybe its best that it isn't.

Americans argued over whether to rebel from Great Britain, whether to exterminate the native americans, whether to have a king, and so on, and so forth.  The list is nearly unlimited. Hell, at one  point half the country walked out because the wrong man was elected president, and america had four years of nightmarish civil war.

Now, as ever, numerous circumstances and issues divide america. Political beliefs are the primary divider nowadays, it seems, like usual. The frustrating thing is that the animosity and hatred surrounding most issues could be greatly mitigated if people (americans) would be willing to be just a bit more open minded and reasonable.

Take the abortion issue, for instance. One of the most divisive, yes? Both the pro life and the pro choice people are frustratingly narrowminded. The pro choice folks rant about the rights of the woman, but they fail talk about the rights of the unborn child.

Shouldn't they have enough guts to say, "yes, abortion is murder, but an unborn fetus has no legal rights, and the mother, not the government, must have complete control." Because if abortion isn't murder, what is?

Pro life people, on the other hand, assume that if you are pro choice, you are pro abortion, as if you encourage women to have abortions. That of course, is nonsense. Pro choice people don't like abortions anymore than anyone else, but they simply do not want any government taking away a woman's health and reproductive self control.

Pro life conservatives usually claim they don't like big government. Well, in this case, they do, they most certainly do. Big, huge, morality tyranny.

If only the zealots on both sides of the issue would accept the whole truth. Don't hold your breath.