Although I write this post as a proud American, it is my belief that the strength and position of the United States of America is of great importance to the entire civilized world.  Debate is a good thing and it is a cornerstone of American society.  Part of the greatness of the country is the freedom of all its citizens to express themselves no matter how diametrically opposed one citizen or group may be from the other.  However, the freedoms given by the founding fathers, as important as they are, do very little good if they are used a destructive force against a united society.

Let me make it clear to anyone reading this that I am not being so presumptuous to think that anyone can put a limit on the freedom of speech.  Any limitations put on it destroy the very premise it was built on.  So in essence, all I am doing in this post is exercising my freedom of expression with a personal plea.  Let’s get it together people.

It is time to come together as a nation and stop the bitter attacks against one another.  Abraham Lincoln once said, “America will never be destroyed from the outside. If we falter and lose our freedoms, it will be because we destroyed ourselves.”  We are destroying ourselves.  Not with differences of opinion or ideology, not with conservative or liberal stances, and not with a loyalty to the Republican or Democratic Party.   We are destroying ourselves with conspiracy theories, personal attacks and vendettas, and hatred towards those who think differently than we do.  Intelligent debate has been replaced by name calling and accusation.  Idealism has been replaced with a corruption that has ambitious people taking advantage of weaknesses created by a modern society blinded by the desire to always find the easy way out.

I am a Social Liberal, but it is very important that I make something very clear.  This is a totally non-partisan post.  Those who are guilty are on all ends of the political spectrum and to say otherwise would just compound the problem and destroy any credibility this post might have.  Even if one side is harsher than the other, something both sides take turns being, we are still at a stage of verbal conflict where it behooves either side, even the attacked side to take a softer stance if it creates a more unified nation.  We need that right now.  For despite the importance of the debates taking place in the country today, the true enemies are not domestic.  There are forces such as Islamic regimes and a North Korean crazy who want to see us wiped off the map.  I may be Pro Choice, but I’ll support my Pro Life fellow American against those whose intention is to murder us.  And if someone opposes gay marriage, although I disagree with their viewpoint, I don’t see them as evil for standing by what they believe in.  And I may have an anti-gun philosophy for the average American, but I also know that an extremely high percentage of those who are passionate about keeping their guns do not want them for the purpose of killing their fellow Americans.

My point is that even the most Conservative of civilized Americans are not my enemy, just as I am not theirs.  But if we go after each other with venom and hatred we risk doing the very thing the great Abraham Lincoln warned us about, and that is destroying ourselves.  As an American this is my personal plea to all those reading.  Let’s not go down that road.  Let’s debate the issues but never stop working together for the best possible solutions to our shared problems.