United We Stand, Divided We Fall

 

It may appear to many that I have abandoned my blog since my last blog of May 5, 2016; however, while things beyond my control have usurped my life for the last year and a half, I did not quit, which is why I did not remove my blog. I did, however, take a type of hiatus for different reasons. I had surgery in June of 2016 and spent the remaining months of the year recovering. I was back on my feet, feeling my best but then I had a setback, the 2016 Presidential Election. The results rocked my world just as they rocked the worlds of 65,845,063, which number is official and indisputable. Further, I venture to postulate that the voters who wrote in a name merely did so because they did not like either the Democratic candidate, Hilliary Clinton, or the Republican candidate, Donald Trump, are regretting some of their votes right about now as well. I will also speculate and assert that perhaps there are voters who voted the Libertarian, Green or Independent ticket and their worlds are also rocking.

The Rolling Stones are a rock band that originated in London, England in 1962 and while band members have come and gone, they are still touring and performing today. In 1969 they were well-known for one of their more prominent songs, “You Can’t Always Get What You Want.” I was not yet a teenager when “You Can’t Always Get What You Want” was released but it immediately became a favorite of mine, and I knew the chorus lyrics by heart. I liked the message in the chorus; it taught me a valuable lesson as an aggrieved child. However, as I sit and watch the news, or read the papers and political articles that are full of fear, hatred, racism, abomination, etc., there are two lines from this song that plays over and over again in my head, “No, you can’t always get what you want. But if you try sometimes, you find you get what you need.” Friends, brothers, sisters and young people, listen to me when I tell you that what is happening all over the world is not what any of us need. No one in America, whether they will admit it or not, got what they needed out of this election.

We are quickly becoming a nation divided. Friendships are dissipating; families are turning on one another; people of different colors and nationalities are separating from the general populace; people are fighting one another in the streets because they look different or think differently from someone else. What are we doing? We are America; we love one another; we help one another; we step up and come together, side by side when disaster strikes. Skin color, language spoken, clothes worn, neighborhoods we live in, the cars we drive, what we do for a living, none of these things matter when we find ourselves standing together when a white boy shoots nine people in an African American Church while they are holding Bible study. I saw with my own two eyes what happened when this tragedy befell the beautiful city of Charleston, South Carolina. I was there when all races came together to support, hug and cry with one another, to march together hand in hand regardless of our skin color. And I see it now when I turn on the news and monitor the flooding and displacement of hundreds of thousands of people in Houston, Texas, as well as Lousiana.

The people of Houston, Texas are helping one another without considering differences. They are working together, helping one another; saving lives regardless of who needs saving. I have watched Hispanics, African Americans and Caucasian citizens bring out their personal motor boats, kayaks, canoes, floats, etc., to rescue one another. And let’s not forget they are living side by side together in shelters, sharing what little they have. My question is, why do we have to be in the middle of a disaster to care for one another? That’s not who we are as Americans, and all of us know this. If you’ve been following the news on what’s happening in Houston, Texas, and Louisiana then you are aware that it is not solely neighbors helping neighbors, Texans helping Texans, or Louisianians helping Louisianians. I feel the need to be clear on one fact; this is not “fake news” you see on your television screen or the front page of your newspapers. And while I’m talking about Americans taking care of their own, I must point out that people from all walks of life from multiple other states are involved in helping with the disaster in Texas and Louisiana. Some are taking time off work to travel to Houston to do whatever they can do to help those in need. Additionally, companies, as well as individuals, are donating and collecting school supplies, diapers, baby food, water, clothing, blankets, and other necessities, and trucking companies are volunteering to load and deliver the supplies to where they are so badly needed.

As Americans, this is who we are. We rise to the occasion when there is a need because regardless of our beliefs, there is good within everyone. Unfortunately, sometimes it takes a catastrophe or an attack against those where we live for that goodness to rise within us. We don’t all have to think alike; eat alike; dress alike; look alike; speak alike to care for humanity. We are all individually entitled to our thoughts and beliefs, but we must also respect the views and opinions of every other human being that share this once-great country. This trickle down political dogma is going to tear this united nation apart unless we start at the bottom, working together, all the time and not just when disaster strikes. And keep our country united by using our voices together to reject that which is not who we are as Americans or what the United States America advocates. We’ve all heard it before, “United we stand, divided we fall.” It’s time to unite; it’s imperative that we unite and stand together, sooner rather than later.

When I sat down to write this blog I intended to explain my absence from blogging since May 2016 in one blog; however, due to time constraints and our new millennium attention spans, I am going to write two more blogs. One to cover my writing and reading hiatus I took from January to July, and another blog on yet another surgery I had in July from which I am still in recovery mode but doing well.