Warning: This letter has the ability to insult most people on the planet. It can seem anti-religion, anti-race, anti-country or creed, anti-sewing circle and anti-family. Anti-any of the groups we belong to. I can assure you, it is not. It is only anti-divided, anti-separate, anti-apart. It is meant to promote the idea that yes, enjoy family and those unique ties, enjoy church and the shared love. Religions around the world know Love is God. That Love is world-wide. You should love outings with “the guys” or “gals”. I myself, love being with folks with whom I share similarities with. We speak the same language, share like experiences, can agree on so many things. It feels comfortable and natural, an important part of my life. A good part of my life. We need this as humans. It is perfectly fine to do this.
Most of us have been a part of a team. We know the comradery, we know the pride of teamwork in achieving a goal. These, all good things we should never lose. Competition, a healthy part of life. But competition minus respect is something different. Demonizing the opponent, too helpful, too easy. It can relinquish responsibility for our own actions by blaming someone else. “It’s all the terrorist fault, we have nothing to do with it.” See how easy that is to say? How easy that is to feel? Replace “terrorists” with Whites or Blacks or Republicans or Democrats. This, the slippery slope we rarely hear of.
We need to love new ideas just as much as our Small Town, USA. We need to love opening ourselves up to different concepts just as much as being with our friends at church. Trying things outside of our box. Enjoy people’s differences as much as you do our similarities. You’ll find differences with similar people and many things similar with folks who are different. This, the gist of our Founding Principle. Comforting and exciting all around, often at the same time.
This letter, meant to shock, not offend. But we need to face up to our pre-existing condition called Tribalism. Our most divisive trait. Realize it has and does serve us well. But mostly, we must realize the danger it poses. Divided we fall means all of us. Mankind itself.
The United States, the world, has a pre-existing condition. The fatality rate, 100%. The pain from this disease, immeasurable. The magnitude, barely fathomable. The appetite of this affliction, as infinite as universal life. Mankind, doomed without the cure.
Sorry folks, Trump is not the problem, only a symptom of this malady. To alleviate this symptom will not be the cure. Nor will aspirin or heroin, beer or champagne, money or power, laser-guided bombs or laser-precision surgery. The distance you can travel or the measurements of your fence will never be the cure.
For this pre-existing condition, borne by us all, is truly diabolical. This disease makes you feel good. It camouflages itself as a gift, as something that has and always will protect you from harm. This disease will give you friends, folks you can relate to, with things to talk about, to laugh about, things to get mad about with. It will give you people you feel you can trust. The assurance that you are not alone. It tells you that you’re the smart ones. That you “get it”. That others are the problem. If you can just get away from them or eliminate them somehow, life would be much easier, much simpler to manage. Peace and happiness will surely follow. It whispers to us that difficult, self-reflection, soul searching, now unnecessary. It can prove to us how good we are with peer respect and show us how terrible others are with snapshots and blanket statements. This disease allows us to justify our actions, allows us to be unencumbered with rules, because now, we’re protecting our loves from harms imagined or pre-conceived. The ends now justify the means. This disease pronounces “us” with a hiss. This condition conjures up persecution and self-pity as an ally. All our hard work, the sacrifices of our ancestors, all we have earned, at risk of being taken by the undeserving. This disease gains strength in hubris. Metastasizes with our pride.
This pre-existing condition goes to such lengths to kill, it can even save our life, can save the life of our loved ones. For now, we can see harm coming from our past experience and have prepared the power to stop it. It will promise protection against evil, even after death if we join. It will comfort us. It tells us we are safe here. It becomes a natural part of our being. We don’t even notice it anymore. This disease feels normal, reliable, steady. It makes us feel strong. It gives us the intense satisfaction of being right.
This disease feels good. It’s easy to see how it spreads. The siren’s song undeniable. Our vision, quite limited, mostly in miles, only in generations. Everything this affliction can offer us is so inviting. It can blur the past, waxing nostalgia, turns Norman Rockwell into reality.
This disease can even fool us into believing such a place exists where, with this disease in tow, we can feel safe. Where our neighbors are like us. Where things can stay the same or even get better. It makes us think we can draw a line or move away, build a fence, a wall perhaps, that can keep us safe and the bad guys out. It can make us believe that it’s possible for me to stay in the city and you can stay in the country, that we can indeed, stay where we belong. It makes us believe this is feasible, even desirable. It somehow convinces us we will be better off this way. Apart. Separate. Divided. It convinces us that this way, the strong will survive and carry mankind into the future. It completely shuts off logic, math and physics. Logically, compromise and assimilation are stronger, more sustaining than conquering. People learning to cooperate together, with diverse concepts, united, much more superior in the long run than constant battle. Mathematics proves, with every single person unique and different in their own way, we can never actually get to a point where it’s just “us”. Physics proves a tangible wall can never be tall enough. Yet this condition can twist our minds so much, reality is no longer a factor. Science can be ignored, compassion, a sign of weakness, humanity, a pipe dream, critical thinking, for wimps, blind loyalty, the only qualification. It swoons us into disregarding history, to believe in only us and no one else. The only source of truth. Those who disagree are infidels, liars or fools. It convinces us that fear should be our driving force. That there is honor among thieves. The dividers, the heroes. And that strength comes from hardware and steel.
This disease kills by slowly closing our minds. Chokes us, little by little by hardening our hearts and exterminates us, drip by drip by blackening our souls.
This pre-existing condition has many names. The more names, the stronger it becomes. As many names as differences between us. It goes by the name of Christians. It can add more names with Methodist and Catholic, Protestant and Baptist, dividing us even more. It goes by the name of Islam, rejoicing in the names Sunni and Shia. Its name is Black or White, it’s called rich and poor, growing stronger with each class line drawn in between, above and below. This parasite loves Republicans, embraces Democrats, it revels in Blond Hairs or Brown Eyes, unionists and the country club. It loves borders and bunkers, is best friends with the Apocalypse. It spotlights the terrible and minimizes, even ignores the positives. It knows we cannot fight it divided, apart, and separate.
Its tool is fear and masquerades as love. It can blind us so much, we don’t even see the weak as they fall by the wayside. This ailment, this disease, this killer, this pre-existing condition, mankind’s most heinous malady.
Throughout time there has been a race for the cure. Along the lines of mankind’s history, there has been people who had the courage and foresight to say, “Let’s not kill the stranger. Maybe we can learn something we hadn’t thought of.” Although at first, they were probably killed by that stranger or their own tribe, eventually we, somewhat, got the idea that interactions can be beneficial and we were better off with it than we were without it. This disease took its first hit.
I believe this deadly creature took its worst blow on July 4th, 1776. Finally, a whole country born to fight it. America cut a head off this disease back then, another in 1865. We have battled to cut the heads that grew back since then, many, many times. The beast never dying, always coming back. Able to build immunities, learning to blend in even more, to become acceptable, with more powerful weapons, able to reach farther and deeper than ever before.
But it seems ironically, as I’m told, this monster cannot grow another heart. So it is the heart of the matter. That’s the target we seek. It’s perfect for the heart to be the key for mankind’s survival. In turn, it’s perfect that the heart is the cure for this deadly condition. We must stab the heart of this beast with the heart of our country.
To stop this disease, the heart is the goal. So examine the heart of this country we love. “…all men are created equal…” at the heart of us all. What’s at the heart, the very purpose of this, our Founding Principle? At its heart, the battle against this relentless foe. Our country’s stated goal, to fight this killer. To fight division, to fight our tribal instincts. Its sole purpose, to unite our people. The only way to unite every person? Pronounce us all Individual. Every single person unique. A tribe of one. Every single person like no other. Each a minority. Unanimous together. All alike in the fact that we are all different. Each and every one of us, an Individual. To end our tribal divisions. To unite our country. To bring about a new world.
The heart of this country’s goal – to save mankind. So imperative this goal, our Founders placed it as the one Founding Principle in this Brand New World. They staked everything on this one Principle. The survival of Humanity at the very heart of our beloved country. The most noble cause known to all of mankind. The eradication of this disease at the heart of our existence.
How can we forget or lose, even abandon this cause? Is this pre-existing condition that strong? Are we indeed, not strong enough? I draw from history, while I still can. I see how far we have come from the trees and the grasslands to the generations I have personally witnessed. I see mankind is amazing. I know we can be that strong. We need to know this about us. Each of us needs to know it about ourselves. Go to the heart of the matter. Look inside America’s heart. Look inside your own. Find that strength you know is there. Find that key to kill this disease. Find the love for our differences that this is all about. Discover every person much more, so much more than we see. Only this can unite us all. The fact of our differences, each person, unique. Only this, our common bond. Equally unique.
This key can open a whole universe. Infinity can be seen. Hope lives here. Charity lives here. Love lives here. Freedom lives here. It has so much more to offer than a box or a line or a wall. Look at the heart of America. You’ll find that key. Think about it. Then tell someone. Speak about it. The most important and complex sentence in history deserves at least this.
I know we’re hitting a mountain with a stick. The sighs of “impossible” can be heard world-wide. The quest, so daunting, this condition, so ingrained. Know that our Founders and patriots back then, from Independence Hall to the ports of Boston to the fields of Carolina had those same doubts, the same thoughts, heard those same sighs. And look what they did armed with this stick. Patriots have swung it now for 241 years. Surrounded by that same cynicism. Yet strong with that key measure of Hope. Our Founders gave us this stick, as strong as all man. This mountain we hit, not as strong as it looks. Millions before us have found the resolve, have found the strength of this stick, they found the heart of “ all men, created equal”. Our differences actually the catalyst which unites us. This why, it’s so hard to grasp. Our differences, our common bond. All created equal in that every individual unique. Each and every one of us with Life and Freedom unalienable.
Fight exclusive tribalism. You’ll recognize it when you see it. You’ll see it when someone hates Muslims or Christians or Jews. Hates Blacks or Whites. Hates Gays. Hates Republicans. You’ll hear it, too. It contains hate and usually ends with a hiss. Fight this tribalism. Fight this terrible disease. Here, try this stick, made from the heart of our country. You have found the strongest, most noble tool on Earth. Please, for the sake of mankind. Hit this mountain with it. I’m there with you, along with the millions long before us and even more millions now. Speak of this Principle. Make sure when your tree falls in the forest, it does make a sound. For someone heard it. You do indeed, make a difference. Mankind will thank you if this disease is cured. And won’t be here to, if we don’t. Spread the words. This is who we are. This, what America stands for. This, our very Founding Principle. To make: Out of the Many, One.