Let us not seek the Republican answer or the Democratic answer, but the right answer. Let us not seek to fix the blame for the past. Let us accept our own responsibility for the future.
-JFK
I would like to open this blog post by saying that I am not trying to sway people right or left. I have no agenda for a particular candidate. I hate politics, but I felt the need to speak up…
Normally, I do not like to express my political views on the Internet, but I feel the need to say some things. I find it hard to believe that our country is at this crossroads. We have reached the peak of our national recognition and “glory” as America. Through this whole campaign process one question has had me bogged down. What if America is NOT supposed to be great again? (This question is not aimed particularly at Donald Trump, but it involves his slogan. I believe that his slogan is honestly the heart of all of the candidates running, aside from their personal agenda.)
Let me elaborate.
For about a century now, America has been a world power. We have dominated in areas that our founding fathers probably never dreamed possible. We have reached the peak of our nation. If we reach the peak then a drop lies on the other side. This campaign is not necessarily when I realized this, but it has confirmed certain triggers in my mind. We are a screwed up country and we are too screwed up to even notice.
Over the last few years, as a nation we have become immune to the sin that surrounds us in many ways. We choose a sin, jump on the bandwagon, and ride it to death, until a hatred arises within us. Why do some sins make us disgusted on TV and others we do not even bat an eye? Why do we pick out homosexuality and not the sins of heterosexuality that run rampant in our culture? Why is pornography seen as strictly a male issue? Why do people think men are the only ones who objectify the opposite sex, when women do too? Why is it so easy to watch a murder on television and not bat an eye? Why are we skeptical of tense situations? Why are we unwilling to hear the opinions of others before dismissing them completely? Why have we decided to medicate the pain away, instead of trying to face it head on? It is a cop out. We are unwilling to face the hate and hurt in our world, so we turn away like it never happened in hopes that we will not have to deal with it.
Racism is once again at the forefront of our nation. If you think that it does not exist in America then you must be oblivious to the world that we live in. It has never left. It is sad. It breaks my heart, the stereotypes and hate that lies deep in the lives of so many. As the great modern day philosophers (rappers) Macklemore and Ryan Lewis say in one of their new songs, “It seems like we’re more concerned with being called racist than we actually are with racism.” I do not think that we consciously understand how deep this runs. The system is flawed and broken on both sides, but if we are so concerned with being pro-life in certain areas of life, then we must concerned for all types of life. We should be especially concerned for those who are crying out in the hurt and injustice that lies in our country.
Money. Money is always at the forefront of our nation. We have “prospered” greatly here. However, the economy has been fickle and all we care about is being fiscally responsible. Secretly, we all think this will solve our problems, when in reality it just intensifies the situation. Our inability to think clearly when money is involved has skewed the way we value people. Whether the market is good or bad, people are still here. People are what matter. People are what hold things together and if we cannot figure out people then we are going nowhere. Our political system has become one of people who praise political correctness or the opposite. In reality, no one will ever be happy. However, it has also become one of which candidate can diss the other one better or who can bash a certain group of people in order to play to our country’s egotistical inferiority complex. Whether money is or is not in the picture we must learn to hear and value people.
Ultimately, the answer to these problems is God. It always was and always will be. However, it is and is not that simple. We must turn to him and learn to love one another. The second half of that is the hard part. We are promised all of these great ideas to come with a certain candidate and virtually none of them will ever come into fruition, because truth be known, it is already too screwed up at the top to even make sense of the circumstances that we live in our day-to-day lives. However, if we learn to love one another this world becomes a better place. If we learn to value people, this country can begin to work towards a nation of true freedom. We do this by running away from the love of money, racism, and the self-medication that so many of us turn towards. History repeats itself and we are right in the middle of it. Until then I pray that God has mercy on us, because united we will fall.