One Nation...

Are we still one America? Does E Pluribus Unum still hold? Or have we come to a "best of times / worst of times" fork in the road? Are we becoming two Americas? Is that what we want?

Those of us who get excited about politics, government, and the great issues of the day, are pushed and pulled into entrenched positions that we are prepared to defend at all costs. We sure do feel a lot like two Americas -- and it's not a good feeling.

At the Democratic National Convention of 2004, Senator Barack Obama said this:

Now even as we speak, there are those who are preparing to divide us -- the spin masters, the negative ad peddlers who embrace the politics of "anything goes." Well, I say to them tonight, there is not a liberal America and a conservative
America -- there is the United States of America.

There is not a Black America and a White America and Latino America and Asian America -- there's the United States of America.

The pundits, the pundits like to slice-and-dice our country into Red States and Blue States; Red States for Republicans, Blue States for Democrats.

But I've got news for them, too. We worship an "awesome God"in the Blue States, and we don't like federal agents poking around in our libraries in the Red States. We coach Little League in the Blue States and yes, we've got some gay friends in the Red States. There are patriots who opposed the war in Iraq and there are patriots who supported the war in Iraq.

We are one people, all of us pledging allegiance to the stars and stripes, all of us defending the United States of America.

This seemed to me a more positive framing of the basic John Edwards stump speech about two Americas, and in its core idea of our shared values and traditions, I think he got it right.

As Lincoln said in his first inaugural address:

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 battle-field, and patriot grave, to every living heart and hearth-stone, 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.

I don't know whether we will recapture the wisdom of Abraham Lincoln in our time, but if we do it will be because our nation's leaders, starting with the President himself, take strong positive steps to end the divisive poltics that have riven the nation for the past 20 years.

I remain hopeful, but not optimistic.

In that hopeful spirit, my best (belated) wishes to all readers of TBV:

Happy Independence Day!