#independnceday

Today is a day to feel proud about being a part of this great nation 🇮🇳. May this spirit of freedom leads us all to success and glory in life 💹.

The nation edges toward its primary holiday, one that will be a relief,  because it has been a week of strangeness for the USA, on one hand there has been this incredible unity for the United States Men’s National Soccer Team and their play in the World Cup. On the other hand there has been a massive split in the culture regarding the Supreme Court’s Hobby Lobby decision.

Strange because there is such a dichotomy in the images, in the news.

But perhaps it isn’t as strange as it appears; media distorts things to get viewers, page clicks and listeners. The greater the conflict, the more dramatic the theme the more likely something is to lead a newscast or go viral.

This creates the lies we believe and distorts the perception we have of ourselves.

The nation is divided; the public is cynical about our government. All this is true, but is it as bad as the years before the Civil War, or the Reconstruction, or the Depression? The media is constantly bombarding us with the message it is “The worst divide in America since the Civil War” but when you watch the World Cup crowds does it seem that conflicted?

The dialogue about the divide revolves around the Tea Party, Occupy, Bush or Obama Derangement. This is surface tension though and is reflected in the SCOTUS coverage. The outcry from the left didn’t fully look at the decision and the conservative shout back did the same, and both arguments barely touched on what the court said and devolved into screams about how stupid the other person is, no content, no reason, no facts just insults.

The coverage, especially on the major news networks showed only opinion pundits and on the internet news aggregators the comment sections always, regardless of topic, devolve into insult matches.

But really on your Facebook posts did you get into shouting matches? Did you a Starbucks? Over the dinner table or the PTA meeting?

America is divided, and it seems pretty extreme, but in my opinion we’ve been here before, in times that didn’t involve armed conflict. The Civil Rights era and the ending of Jim Crow law brought incredible anger, far from the south with riots in Detroit and Watts, it as an intense 30 year period that directly dovetailed into and became part of the Vietnam protests. This entire period was marked by far more violence then today. Yes Gabby Giffords was shot by a radical, but his motives are still unclear. This is far different than the two greatest civil rights leaders of the generation or the son of the most prominent family, a beloved younger brother to the murdered president. Malcolm, Martin and Bobby were killed because of their politics. This is not happening today.

America runs on a dynamic tension of 300 million people from thousands of cultures and with multiple religious, economic and political points of view, there is not meant to be a consensus at all times, conflict is constant, it works as grind stone to bring out the best in our culture.

We’ve been in much worse times as a nation, we’ve seen much worse injustice and inequality and risen above it and create a better nation, these conflicts are constant and unavoidable.

So ignore the internet comments section, avoid AM radio, and avoid Fox and MSNBC unless you really want to invest in feeling that America is in decline, that America is headed toward a civil war. If you want to invest in that nonsense feel free but know that isn’t a reflection of who we really are, that’s the product of the loudmouth charlatans who make money on conflict and insecurity.

Go celebrate Independence Day this year, look around you at the diversity of people celebrating with you, realize that this diversity is becoming greater and that makes us stronger and honor the past but live in the moment of celebration and joy the holiday brings.

Essay by James Blatter