Crossing the Continental Divide

By Andrew Lidden Pate, Jr.

The World’s most fascinating puzzle, and most difficult to solve, is of a human nature: how to get men or women of divergent views to work together. At work, at home, in the ball park, life demands that we determine how to get along.

“Politics and Religion” accentuate the puzzle’s  great mystery.  Our divisions over the two are sometimes so sharp they alienate wives from husbands, children from parents, and, yes, Christians from other Christians. If intense and bitter enough, they can destroy friendships, marriages, churches, and undermine and eradicate the good work of city councils, school boards, and most every other endeavor that involves human contact.

Politically and religiously the divide within the United States is deeper and wider in 2018 than it has been in a long time, perhaps since 1865. Electronic messages and news reports have hyperventilated  the bitter feelings, causing them to rise from anger to rage and fury.  It’s not a pleasant thing of which to be a part.

Perhaps we shall not overcome. If so, the chances are very likely that we will no longer be the nation we love and cherish.

It is tantamount among us, therefore  to overcome the Great Divide. Simply put: our survival is at stake.

Alarmist? No. The signs of division are too many and too deeply felt.

How?

There’s no magic answer. But let us suggest some beginnings:

#1 - Each American is being called upon to undergo a most serious self-evaluation.

Have I contributed to the division? Am I a part of the problem?  Where have I been in error?

#2- We are being asked to restudy and adopt anew the core values that have kept Americans bonded for 242 years, namely:  liberty, justice and freedom for all; then

#3, and lastly  - We must confess to one another our errors and recommit ourselves to rebuilding trust among us.

If, in my writings here and elsewhere, I have contributed  to the alienation of Americans from one another,  I beg forgiveness and ask to be judged solely by whether my positions uphold the above cited values.

If I have caused you, the reader,  to feel unworthy, agitated you to the degree that you think violence the only solution, definitively I have been wrong.

Please tell me how I can do better, and help both of us live the best American life possible.

"Come, let us reason together."