DONNIE JOHNSTON: Celebrate?

The upcoming 250th is "a big national birthday, and we should unite as one. But how do we come together as one when the man who leads us hates half of those he is sworn to serve?"

By Donnie Johnston
COLUMNIST

Photo by tom coe on Unsplash

This year America celebrates its 250^th birthday and we’re all supposed to be in a holiday mood.

Well, we aren’t. We’re a nation so divided that Republicans and Democrats barely speak. We just don’t like each other. And the strange part is that we really don’t know why.

You would think that a strong leader would do all in his power to bring us together. Instead, our president seems to do everything he can think of to push us farther apart.

Still, this is a big national birthday, and we should unite as one. But how do we come together as one when the man who leads us hates half of those he is sworn to serve?

On numerous occasions, Donald Trump has proclaimed publicly and without reservation that he hates Democrats. Hates them! That’s exactly the way he has expressed his feeling for half his fellow Americans.

That’s right! He hates Democrats, who in a two-party state, make up about 50 percent of our population. How can you fairly represent people that you hate? Is that even possible?

When you come right down to it, we are no longer the “United” States of America. We are divided into red states and blue states and further identified as either conservatives or liberals. We are essentially two countries with each group criticizing the other about everything.

Most of us do not appreciate what we have here in America. Even the poorest of our poor fare far better than the middle classes in many countries. There are countries in Africa where even clean drinking water is a luxury and nations in the Middle East whose citizens have lived in a war zone their whole life.

Hunger? Americans don’t know what hunger is. There are countries where children with pooched out bellies fight for scraps of food. The only kids in America with pooched out bellies are those who eat fast food for every meal. And even the few who are really hungry are in that position not because there is no food, but because their parents do not work to provide for them.

We drive fancy cars while the poor in some nations still ride in ox carts. We live in homes the poor in Mexico and other Central American nations only dream about. I know. I’ve been there and seen the shanties with corrugated tin roofs and pigs running around in a yard the size of an American living room.

By the grace of God, we have been spared all this. We throw away more food in one week than many families in other countries eat in a month. We have clean water to drink and warm places to live. We have electricity to power the televisions and computers to keep us entertained.

Not since the Civil War has there been a war on American soil. Most of those who are so quick to suggest bombing our neighbors have never tasted war, never seen their homes blown up, never seen a friend with his head missing or his insides hanging out.

The sad part is that we believe for some strange reason that we are immune to war on our soil, that it could never happen here. And we believe that we are entitled to the good life we enjoy, that God has shifted gears and now WE are His chosen people.

Yes, this is the 250^th anniversary of our country and we have a lot to celebrate. But if we are not careful it can all slip away. As I said in an earlier column, the average length of history’s great civilizations – of which we are one – is about 250 years.

When you get used to power you become over-confident and believe you are invincible. That has led to the downfall of many great nations.

At the height of the Cold War, Soviet Premier Nikita Kruschev predicted that there was no need to conquer America because we would eventually decay from within.

Was he right? Today we fight amongst ourselves and worship a leader who would divide us even further. We seem to agree on nothing other than the fact that the other political party is the root of all evil.

A house divided … well, you know the famous Abraham Lincoln quote.

Right now we are putting ourselves in a very vulnerable position. Under Trump, we are losing friends and losing the respect of the world.

We have survived for 250 years because we were always the good guys. Now we are fast becoming the bad guys, a nation out to rule the world. The world has never allowed any civilization to get away with such greed.

So celebrate this great nation, but not as Republicans and Democrats or conservatives and liberals, but as Americans.

And don’t allow one man to destroy us, which may well be what is happening.

Anyone who hates half his people can’t be a leader worth following.

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