I think a lot of people are over the drama. These days, it’s hard to wade through the B.S. and understand what’s really happening in America. Personally, I’m tired of:
- Watching an inept Congress not accomplish anything that helps Americans in our day-to-day lives.
- Politicians and media figures being idolized, their words soaked up and treated as Gospel.
- Politicians weaponizing the Christian faith while ignoring the real teachings of Jesus.
- Leaders that sow division instead of uniting our country.
Maybe you’re tired of those things, too. Look, no matter who you voted for or where you sit on the Left-Right spectrum, I’ll bet you can find more common ground with your fellow Americans than not.
Do you love your family? Do you work hard and try to do the best work you can? Do you hate political violence? Do you just want to live your life without anyone telling you how you should do it?
I think we all agree on more than we disagree.
Free speech is for all of us. Freedom over our bodies is for all of us. Freedom to worship how we want — or not at all — is for all of us.
What I see more and more is the media stirring up drama and helping to divide our nation into two polarized hate groups. It sure helps sell papers — or online ads, anyway. If we all found common ground and figured out how to get along, that would be a very slow news day. But there’s no money in that.
When I watch politicians say ridiculous things that have no bearing in truth, it doesn’t bother me, except when I see that their influence over some people is so powerful that their ridiculous words are believed without any fact checking.
Blind obedience isn’t what America is about. It was never supposed to be, anyway. We are supposed to be a free people. Free thinkers. Resilient. We are supposed to hold the power, not the White House.
It’s funny. Both sides of the extremely polarized America we live in today say many of the same things:
- The other side is crazy!
- The other side tells lies!
- The other side is evil!
- The other side only wants to rule over everyone!
- The other side is going to ruin our country!
And here we sit, in the middle, most of us not caring about “the other side,” only wanting to provide for ourselves and our families. Stay healthy. Have a good time. Work hard. Enjoy our friends or be left alone.
Why is it so hard to do that? Why is it so hard to get along when so many of us want the same things?
It’s hard because the media and politicians benefit from our polarization. It’s that simple.
It’s difficult to have power over people who think for themselves. It’s tough to stir up drama when people think for themselves.
The solution to the polarization problem we have, the sharp divide that exists in our country, is not as big of a challenge as it seems. There are steps each of us can take on our own to help resolve it, like:
- Look for commonality in others. Respect our differences.
- Stop getting sucked into the daily news, which exists only to appeal to our worst sides.
- Stop being so reactionary to everything we see and hear that we don’t agree with. Something may be truly important to address, or we may feel it’s wrong, but we can choose to stop yelling and make a plan to fix it.
- Separate the real problems from the ones the media wants you to focus on.
- Stay away from the comments on social media. Many of them are fake accounts who are trying to initiate drama.
We are much too big of a nation for all citizens to agree on everything. We never will. But we can have respectful discussions about it.
This is all I came here to say. And all I ask is that you take some time to think about it — for yourself — before you come to any judgments or conclusions.
Thanks for reading.