I don’t hold myself to any one political party. I am currently registered Republican (not “a republican”) because I like to vote in a primary. I’ve also been registered Democrat (not “a democrat”) for the same reason. I haven’t voted for a major party candidate in over a decade. I vote for my dad every four years.

I don’t watch the news. My friends post to Facebook. They text me “Have you heard … ?” messages with links to the news. These are my friends. And they are angry. And they are scared. And they post angry, scared messages.

What I see is our country shattering and shredding itself apart. I see Americans shouting “they” are more American and those “others” are less American. They use hateful words and hateful sentiments. And everyone seems to think this is okay.

Americans are saying “Of course it’s okay to say hateful words and use hateful sentiments because ‘they’ started it!!!”

Where did my United States of America go? What happened to “We the people”?

I offer a song written by Dave Wakeling titled “Two Swords.”

Fighting the Front or just fronting the fight
Sometimes it’s hard to see the left from the right

Two swords slashing at each other
Only sharpen one another