United States? - Divided States?

Since the Revolutionary War many lives have been sacrificed so that the citizens of  this great country can embrace our freedoms, especially those in the First Amendment.

We are endowed by our Creator to enjoy our  freedoms to embrace, and the most effective way to do this is if we do it together. That means, Republicans, Democrats, Independents, Catholic, Jews, Muslims, and even Atheists. 

I am 77 years young, served in the military for four years, and have seen it all. No, I didn't see any combat, but I traveled throughout many European countries courtesy of the U.S. Air Force.

I met many people  that embraced many ideas. I lived in barracks with servicemen of different ideologies, religions, and "answers".  And yet there wasn't any violence or riots during these disagreements. We had a common goal: to serve our great country the best we could.


During my 77 years on this earth I have never seen so much overt division in our great country.
We seem to have lost sight of our common goal: to do the best we can to hand over a great country to our children and grandchildren.


Those that know me, and/or have read any of my blogs know that I lean to the right. I actually welcome a decent debate on political issues.


I belong to a golf league with thirty other seniors. Of these thirty only three of us are strong conservative Republicans. You can count on much teasing and joking every Wednesday morning when we meet for golf. When Obama won the election in '08 we three took a lot of good-natured teasing and ribbing; never any personal attacks.


Never was there a personal attack on anyone who disagreed with the three or the thirty.
When Obama's policies started to go bad for him there was more teasing to the thirty who voted for him. Many times I said, "how's that Hope & Change workin' for you?" His answer was, "still better than Bush". We both laughed at one another. Again, no personal attacks to one another.

Every Wednesday I drive to the golf league with a strong Democrat. We tease each other a lot.
However, I consider him a close friend and neither of us would ever make a personal attack remark to each other.  Disagreement and debating are parts of life. 


What isn't a part of life are personal attacks on someone who disagrees with your political policies. I encourage everyone to speak out at the voting booth, and not openly with degrading personal attacks on one another.


Sure, it's safe to say that most of our media leans to the left, i.e., MSNBC, CNN, PBS, and many times even ABC, NBC, and CBS.  All I can say to that is "so what"?  I don't mind their bias towards the Obama administration. What I do object to is their personal attacks on anyone who disagrees with their philosophies.


Sarah Palin is not even in office any longer. Recently I was praising her for her role as a mother, grandmother, and wife. The person I was saying this to lashed out with a personal attack remark that I could not write here, and the remark could only be compared to something Bill Maher of HBO would say. When I asked "why say that"?, the person remarked,
"because she's a &*$# ".

Recently, I've had two aquaintances, that I previously called friends, removed from my facebook and e-mail address list. They crossed the line and began personal attacks on me, because I published my blog with a right-leaning slant.

I am honored to have a News-Herald sponsored blog, and promised them that I would never make personal attacks on anyone who disagrees with my conservative beliefs.


I'll close with again encouraging all who read this that it's OK to disagree, voice your own beliefs, but please we all have a common goal for this great country. As Americans let's never forget that.


It is definitely not necessary to make personal attacks on those who disagree with you.


And that's Politics with Pete for today.