This is the time to stand together

We all know the many adages about divisiveness.

Lincoln, paraphrasing a saying of Jesus, said "A house divided against itself cannot stand"; from Aesop, "United we stand, divided we fall"; and from Benjamin Franklin, "We must all hang together, or assuredly we shall all hang separately." Yet it doesn't seem to be enough to allow us to work together in the current economic crisis. Is there so little wisdom in these sayings that we can ignore them?

How did we get to this place where we put partisanship ahead of self-interest and who did it serve? Radio and television entertainers have publicly hoped for the President's failure and others have defended their view. Websites, cynical activists, and self-proclaimed pundits build false cases against both the president and his administration's policies to widen the divide. Letters to the editor suggest that the American people do not have to accept the decisions made in Washington and continue smear attacks even after the election is over. Republicans in the Congress attain compromises but still reject the president's spending bill.

We should not waste this opportunity to force our leaders to work not for their political territory but for we the people who have elected them. All actions need to support the effort of turning things around and regaining our prosperity. This will require looking past party lines and party ideology and finding the common ground where unity can exist. Obstructionism only hurts us and should be rejected. Those who make a living off divisiveness should not be rewarded with our attention. Patriotism is support of our Nation, not our political party.

A last quotation from JFK, "The unity of freedom has never relied on uniformity of opinion." It is our strength that we resist apathy and know enough to have opinions about the kind of nation we want. Without losing that, we can change the discourse from argument to discussion. If you want my view to change, persuade me, don't shout me down. By understanding what's in our own self-interests, the avoidance of that house divided, we can balance our political points of view to find unity and our own success.

David C. Troland

Arlington Heights