Is It Worth It?

You can’t save America by aiding rancor and division

On Tuesday news broke that a bomb had been found at the New York estate of liberal billionaire—and conservative boogeyman—George Soros.

Wednesday followed with reports of “suspicious packages” sent to former President Barack Obama, 2016 Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton, former Attorney General Eric Holder, U.S. Rep. Maxine Waters and to the headquarters of CNN in a parcel addressed to ex-CIA Director John Brennan.

As of this writing Wednesday afternoon, law enforcement officials had confirmed that at least two of the packages contained crude explosive devices.

What the heck is going on in this country?

We don’t know if one or more culprits were involved. We don’t know who they might be. At least not yet.

But we hope whomever is involved is found and arrested. Soon.

There is no excuse for this type of unhinged act. None. But there is an reason behind this and other acts of violence on both sides of the political spectrum. And that’s the deep political division in this country that has made ideology more important than unity, partisanship more important that cooperation, hate and disdain more common than civil disagreement. No, none of that takes the ultimately blame away from the person or persons actually responsible. But it creates a toxic climate that gives those sick individuals permission to come out of the shadows and take action.

And that leads to a question we all must ask ourselves—from the common man and woman to those at the highest level of the national discourse: Am I part of that problem?

What do I say or share on social media? How do I respond to differing views? Do I participate in respectful discussion or am I just another ideologue fueling the flames that rancor?

Words can be lost in the noise or they can have tragic consequences. It’s time we started asking ourselves— before we make that remark, post that meme, further a conspiracy theory, disparage a fellow American—what are we doing to our country and our society? And is it really worth it?

Both sides have extremists and both sides they think they are “saving” America. They aren’t. They are helping destroy our nation. And far too many of us are going along with it.