As I sit here on this Christmas morning, 2018, I begin to realize what is really happening to our country. We are a nation divided. We are so entrenched in our own beliefs and needs that we are unwilling or unable to see what the effects of this division will be on our country as a whole.
We are now living in a tragic “zero-sum” game. One moment it seems like I win and you lose and the next you win and I lose; however, one day (maybe not too long from now) we will wake up to find out that nobody has won. Certainly, not America as we’ve known it. For me this is a very somber Christmas morning.
Over the past few days I’ve been reading a novel that my friend Ed gave me called The Bishop’s Pawn, by Steve Berry. It is about the assassination of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. and takes place many years after his death. While it is fiction, it presents a scenario that just could have been true.
There are many interesting points about what went on behind the scenes during that period of time, but I don’t plan to cover all of that right now. However, there was one thing towards the end of the book that sent chills through my body. It was a section of the speech that Dr. King made in Memphis the night before he was assassinated.
In that speech he said, “Now, what does all of this mean in this great period of history? It means that we’ve got to stay together. We’ve got to stay together and maintain unity. You know, whenever the Pharaoh wanted to prolong the period of slavery in Egypt he had a favorite formula for doing it. What was that? He kept the slaves fighting among themselves. But whenever the slaves get together, something happens in Pharaoh’s court and he cannot hold the slaves in slavery. When the slaves get together that’s the beginning of getting out of slavery. Let’s maintain unity.”
It’s hard to see the big picture, especially if you are so focused on your own beliefs that become more important than the whole. As a country, we have allowed ourselves to fight among ourselves to the point where a leader arose who knows how to take full advantage of this. He fuels hate and disruption to keep us fighting. He even creates fights when they need not be there.
So, here we are, fighting among ourselves while our power as a nation is being diminished. Our core values are being stripped away, little by little. The Russians, Chinese, North Koreans, etc. all know what is happening. They throw fuel into the fire. They encourage our leader to keep it up. They clearly see the benefits to them. On top of this we have a leader who is so narcissistic that he is easily manipulated.
None of us will win in the end and, like Dr. King described in his Pharaoh story, we will become slaves. Not in the same way as back then, but modern day slaves to some other tyrant or dictatorial government.
Just this morning I read an article in the New York Times titled, “In Latest Shutdown, Some Lawmakers See a Diminished Congress.” It begins with, “Representatives from both parties lamented that the legislative branch had ceded so much power to the executive branch.”
Maybe, if you feel that you’ve been getting what you want in the way of judicial appointments, tax cuts, etc. you are happy. But, these are just small data points in a much larger story. Maybe you feel optimistic with a Democratic Congress coming into control in 2019. Whatever your position is, I beg you to look at the bigger picture.
We are a country fighting among ourselves and we have a leader who only wants power and adulation for himself. He will do whatever it takes to get those two things. And, the means to his end is to not allow us to unite around the core principles that have made this country great: Values, the rule of law, world leadership in supporting freedom for all, etc.
Please, take a moment to reflect on the dire consequences of what could happen. We are getting dangerously close to being slaves. I know it may not look like this to most people, but as Dr. King said many years ago, “We’ve got to stay together and maintain unity.” We need to do this now, not next week or next year.
The words from Abraham Lincoln’s 1858 speech to the Republican National Convention say it all – “A house divided against itself, cannot stand.”