Diplomacy Over Politics

The politics of today have to cease. We as a people are so on edge, charged, and blinded by anger that we don't realize we've become our own worst enemies. We're on the edge of our chairs ready to attack the neighbors we now treat as enemies over every slight. Placing blame over the simplest remark. Anything and everything becomes another opportunity to cut our political opponents with words, puff ourselves up, and pat ourselves on the back. We will rip ourselves apart long before any foreign threat has an opportunity.

Listen. Neither conservatives nor liberals, neither Democrats nor Republicans, neither right-wingers nor leftists are one hundred percent correct (or remotely close to it). Both sides have strengths. Both sides have major weaknesses. Both sides have and are contributing to one problem or another. What we have to do is stop beating each other over the heads with insults. Instead, let us work together to find reasonable compromises. That is what diplomacy is about. We need more intelligent, moral, integrity-driven diplomats in office, not people who pander to one side of the aisle. We need leaders who see the bigger picture, and not just what their base wants them to think. No more name calling. It is hurting our country. United we stand, divided we crumble in the fists of our own inequities.

What is lost, most of all, is an acknowledgement that we are all human beings. No matter how we feel about each other, we have to maintain self-discipline, humility, honesty, compassion, and respect. We cannot keep pointing fingers but instead extend our whole hands in friendship. The only way our nation will recover from our downward spiraling, self-destructive divisiveness is unity. That means no more name calling or wishing the other any harm. We must all acknowledge our part, however large or small, in what has become a tragic status quo. Then, we can move forward together, apologetic and cautious, towards a greater tomorrow.