It is Us!

 If someone tells you that something is caused by or the fault of "them," run, do not walk, away because in the United States there is no "them", there is only "us"! And that us is "We the People!"

Those pushing the divisions in America are working, knowingly or unknowingly, to destroy the experiment that is the United States.

I heard Ken Burns discuss the current state of leadership in America and he made specific comments about some of the candidates and potential candidates for president. He reiterated, quoting Greg Boyle, that we, Americans, are an "us" and not a "them". 

The message resonated with me because it pains me when our political leaders talk about red states or blue states. Then they break "us" into groups like socialists or ultra-conservatives looking to remold "us" into their own personal narrow vision and excluding those who are outside of their view of "us". 

We, "us", are much too broad and diverse to be compressed into a single narrow vision. I frequently blame the right-wing ultra conservative religious fanatics (definitely a "them") for creating the divisions in the country, but as soon as I identify a specific group, I become part of the problem because I have defined a "them". 

We are us and "us" need to be inclusive. When "us" limits rights and access to freedoms and choice or decide how "us" should thinks or what "us" should learn the crossover to "them" has occurred and we are on the pathway to exclusivity and chipping away at what makes America different from every other country on the planet.

"There is only us."

-- Bob Doan, Tequesta, FL