Division is exhausting

Published 2:51 pm Tuesday, July 19, 2016

We may live in the United States, but we are far from a united nation.

For proof you need only switch on the evening news.

You’ll be bombarded with images of violence, hate and mayhem.

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There’s so much anger in our country.

I don’t know about you, but I don’t have the energy to be angry anymore. There was a time when these incidents did make me angry.

Now, I’m just tired.

I’m tired of the blame game.

I’m tired of wondering when and where the next horrific event will take place.

I’m tired of seeing families destroyed by senseless killings.

The death of Alton Sterling in front of a convenience store in Baton Rouge, La., and the deaths of police officers in Dallas and Baton Rouge, and the deaths of customers at a dance club in Orlando, Fla., are all tragedies.

It’s time we start viewing them as such instead of ammunition for an argument to prove our point about who is right and who is wrong.

Black Lives Matter. Police Lives Matter.All Lives Matter.

Yes. Yes. Yes.

It seems to me that the only thing we are united in is fear of violence.

We just don’t agree about who is going to carry it out.

Will it be a Muslim? Will it be a black man? Will it be a police officer?

Who you view as the threat has a lot to do with your worldview.

There are certainly plenty of fingers pointing in all directions. I’ll concede that some of the conversations that arise as a result of the finer pointing can be productive and help move us forward as a society, but all too many of them are simply rooted in ignorance and reinforce dangerous stereotypes.

The difference is our approach to the conversations.

Are we willing to listen?

Are we there to have a discussion about serious issues and try to find a solution, or are we just there to argue and win?

Here’s the simple truth.

No one is winning. We are all losing.

Maybe it’s time we give something else a try.

I believe it’s time that we all humble ourselves. Americans are a proud people. We need to realize that humility is a strength and not a weakness.

It’s time that we turn to God.

I don’t have the answers for our problems. You don’t have the answers for our problems. Either does the man or woman down the street or up in Washington, D.C. God does.

We need to admit our faults. We’ve all made mistakes in how we’ve related to each other. We’ve been judgmental and mistrustful. We need to apologize to each other and also seek forgiveness from God.

If things are going to get better, it has to start there, and it will ultimately be a work of God.

My prayer is that these tragic events will bring us all closer together and that we will no longer have the deep divides that we do now.

My hope is that we truly will be a united nation.