Who Is Really The Enemy?
On this 4th of July, Steve shares his thoughts about how we treat one another.
"We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.” - Thomas Jefferson, the Declaration of Independence, July 4, 1776.
My Fellow Americans,
On this day in 1776, a group of brave men signed their names to a document that they knew would bring the ire of King George III and Great Britain upon them and their fellow Americans.
Indeed, the British sent thousands of Redcoats not to defend the colonists against a foreign threat, but instead to force them to obey the Crown without question. In other words, the British considered our forefathers “the enemy” for wanting to govern themselves.
Last week while my wife and I were on vacation, we drove by a house that displayed a sign saying “DEMONKRATS ARE THE ENEMY”. That got me to thinking about who is really “the enemy”.
Firstly, immigrants are NOT the enemy regardless of how and when they arrived. Yes, any immigrant who commits violent crimes should be dealt with through due process and deported if found “guilty” by a court of law, but it is wrong to label all immigrants as criminals, r**ists, and gang members. Regardless of their status, the vast majority of them are hard workers who contribute to our nation. For that reason, it behooves us to welcome them and not see them as threats to our society.
In 1933, the Nazis took over Germany and declared those they considered “untermenschen” (less than human) as “the enemy”. Six years later, the Nazis started a bloody war and a campaign to exterminate Jews, gypsies, the disabled, and anyone else who stood in their way. Fortunately, the German people took responsibility for the Nazis’ atrocities and vowed never to allow such a thing to happen again. Are we destined to head down a similar path? The answer is up to us.
Secondly, when the Declaration of Independence declared that “all men are created equal”, it meant we are ALL equal as human beings. It is OK to have differing viewpoints and to express our viewpoints in a peaceful manner. In the U.S. Constitution, the Bill of Rights gives everyone within our nation the rights to speak freely, publish freely, worship freely, appeal to our government to right wrongs, and to due process if charged with any offense. It is OK to be a member of any political party, but it’s NOT OK to consider someone within our borders “the enemy” based solely on party affiliation, where they came from, or what their race, color, religion, etc., may be.
Finally, I am reminded of this cartoon from Walt Kelly’s “Pogo”:
Based on how I believe things are going in this country, Pogo has a point. However, I believe it’s not too late to recommit ourselves to restoring civility to our nation and make America a place where everyone regardless of race, color, religion, nationality, etc., can be free to live their lives, pursue happiness, and provide a comfortable living for themselves and their families. I’ll leave you with the following quote from John F. Kennedy:
“Let us not seek the Republican answer or the Democratic answer, but the right answer. Let us not seek to fix the blame for the past. Let us accept our own responsibility for the future.”
Thank you for reading. Enjoy the 4th of July weekend, be kind to one another, and until next time…