The United States of America has faced division before, and it was arguably much worse during the time of the Civil War than what we face now as a nation. But it seems things are getting worse and worse in our time. This alarms me. And it probably bothers you too, no matter your political leanings. If not, it should.
At his inauguration on March 4, 1861, Abraham Lincoln closed his speech that day with these immortal words:
We are not enemies, but friends. We must not be enemies. Though passion may have strained it must not break our bonds of affection. The mystic chords of memory, stretching from every battlefield and patriot grave to every living heart and hearthstone all over this broad land, will yet swell the chorus of the Union, when again touched, as surely they will be, by the better angels of our nature.
Today, after seeing yet another day full of turmoil, I couldn’t help but think of what Lincoln said so many years ago. The better angels of our nature.
Back then, it was a message of hopefulness, but America still literally tore itself apart. Oh I’ll blog so much more about that later!
Likewise, Ulysses Grant summed it up when he ran for President with this simple statement:
Let us have peace.
Peace.
Peace is what people really want, deep down inside.
I admire those two former Presidents greatly. Under similar circumstances, this is probably the best thing I could come up with in our current divisive political climate:
Let’s work together—no matter our differences—because then there’s almost nothing we can’t solve.