By Steve Cichon
steve@buffalostories.com
@stevebuffalo
As Americans, we’re all still the same, you know.
Whether you agree with Trump or Streep, strip away the name calling and white-hot hatred for the other side, and it’s the same fear at the core for left and right.
Many Americans feel that after 241 years of progress– that in today’s America their way of life is in jeopardy.
Right and left, Conservative and Progressive alike are worried they’ll wake up in a country where they have been pushed out and are no longer welcome.
That’s the opposite of what it has always meant to be an American.
Shouldn’t that be a starting point? Isn’t there a leader who’ll rally us around that? “Things are changing pal… but let’s keep it together and make sure we’re all along for the ride and happy.”
We can do that by disregarding the extremists and name callers who stand to profit in some way by keeping America divided… and get back to something other than looking at half of our fellow Americans as assholes.
Right? Do you really feel that 50% of Americans don’t deserve to call themselves “Americans” because of their beliefs or behaviors? Isn’t that what you’re accusing *them* of?
Regardless of our “leaders,” can we, among ourselves, figure out a way to be more civil? To talk to one another instead of past one another? Leave hyperbole behind? Acknowledge our own flaws, find what’s right in our neighbors, shake hands, and find some common ground?
Not judge the heart, soul, and mind of wide swaths of the American population based on one person’s speech or tweet?
Spend less time hating and more time building something so great, so filled with pride and love and peace and hard work and dedication and humility and AMERICA that you win over the other guys without a fight… because despite any political differences, you are the perfect reflection of what our country has always stood for?
Well, that’s what I’m doing anyway. I mean, after I get done reading the hate mail caused by calling for world peace. Hahaha.
