One does not have to be particularly insightful to recognize that in this year, at this time, our country is divided, not just politically, but culturally, philosophically and every other -ly. We argue over budgets, immigration, abortion, military support, and taxes. In matter of fact, there is very little on which we can agree.
Perhaps it is of little solace that it was worse once before in our history. In 1860 the southern states declared they would secede if Abraham Lincoln, and his upstart Republican party, were elected. Their platform insisting that the nation could not endure half-slave and half-free.
In 1808 a new Federal law had made it illegal to import slaves, and for the subsequent half-century the breeding of slaves became ever more profitable even as the argument over the morality of slavery engulfed every Congress. Now the entire underpinning of the southern economy was threatened.
By 1860 the nation had grown to 33 states. 11 states across the south thought of themselves as Confederate, with the Constitutional right to withdraw from the Union. 15 Northern states declared leaving was not an option, once you joined you were in for good. 5 states said…’wait a minute’, we don’t want to abolish slavery but we don’t want to secede either. They were called Border states.
And so, Lincoln’s election by the more populated northern states led to the South’s secession and the start of a 4 year Civil War that would take the lives of more than 600,000 Americans and leave half the country in ruins. The war should have ended far sooner. After all, the north had 70% of the population and 90% of the factories.
And, although the end of the fighting brought freedom for 4 million Negroes, it did not end racism. Lynchings, Jim Crow laws, and segregation evolved into ghettos, and more subtle practices, even as the majority of Americans today struggle against such inequalities.
Now we enter another Presidential contest few people want. Biden is too old. Trump is too fractious. I don’t actually mind Trump’s policies. I can see the road to compromise with either candidate. But I’m saddened that Donald Trump’s rhetoric has emboldened the Margaret Taylor Greens to spew craziness while violating all the courtesy and decorum necessary for a democracy to function.
Smile at the person in line next to you. Allow the car trying to change lanes to safely move. Hold the elevator door open for someone approaching.
It’s all the small things that, taken together, can make each day a little happier and, just maybe bring a return of civility.
