One nation..?
I have some trouble saying the Pledge of Allegiance these days.
That's not a moot point, since one organization to which I belong starts every meeting by saying the Pledge. And every time, I stumble over one word.
Indivisible.
That may have been true in 1892, when the Pledge was published in The Youth's Companion magazine. But it's rarely been less true in my lifetime.
I've always been interested in politics, although some years, very much including this one, I wonder why. But I listen to some of the rhetoric around the campaign and I wonder why we can't see other people who disagree with us as, well, as people. People with dreams and hopes and fears.
And -- perish the thought -- people who may have come to their beliefs after giving some honest thought and who are holding those beliefs in good faith.
Instead, we have a front-running candidate who seemingly sees the world as Us, virtuous and wonderful and always right, and Them, the evil ones who Aren't Like Us.
It suggests that the front-runner has already built a wall -- one that walls him away from everyone who isn't like him and who doesn't buy into his vision. I'm happy to be on the outside of that wall.
But that puts me in the same group I wonder about. I watch and listen to the rhetoric and I wonder how anyone can hold those beliefs in good faith.
Indivisible? Not any time soon, I fear.
That's not a moot point, since one organization to which I belong starts every meeting by saying the Pledge. And every time, I stumble over one word.
Indivisible.
That may have been true in 1892, when the Pledge was published in The Youth's Companion magazine. But it's rarely been less true in my lifetime.
I've always been interested in politics, although some years, very much including this one, I wonder why. But I listen to some of the rhetoric around the campaign and I wonder why we can't see other people who disagree with us as, well, as people. People with dreams and hopes and fears.
And -- perish the thought -- people who may have come to their beliefs after giving some honest thought and who are holding those beliefs in good faith.
Instead, we have a front-running candidate who seemingly sees the world as Us, virtuous and wonderful and always right, and Them, the evil ones who Aren't Like Us.
It suggests that the front-runner has already built a wall -- one that walls him away from everyone who isn't like him and who doesn't buy into his vision. I'm happy to be on the outside of that wall.
But that puts me in the same group I wonder about. I watch and listen to the rhetoric and I wonder how anyone can hold those beliefs in good faith.
Indivisible? Not any time soon, I fear.