Photography And Half-Thoughts By Mitchell Hegman

...because some of it is pretty and some of it is not.

Monday, January 24, 2022

United

I am troubled by our current state of political division.  I am especially distressed by the profanity often used to express disagreement.  Civil discourse has always been the railing that kept us together.

Having various camps of thought is not only normal, it is necessary.  The trick is finding consensus where two or more camps meet.  My first question is always: “What do we have in common?”

For one thing, and most importantly, we have the United States of America in common.

I thought about the last time we, as a nation, were unfalteringly united.  That, only twenty years ago, immediately following the attacks of 9/11.  You could sense unity in everything you saw and feel it everywhere you went.

I recall a particular shopping trip about a month after the towers fell.  My wife and chanced upon a tiny girl sharing space in a shopping cart with a puppy.  Naturally, we stopped and patted the puppy on his head.

“I named him America,” the little girl informed us.

Mitchell Hegman

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