Are We Capable of Preserving Freedom and Democracy?

The rhetoric of this 2016 Presidential election campaign is more terrifyingly divisive, fear and anger-driven than any I can recall or have studied. It once again stresses, what a collective enigma of social, cultural, philosophical and ideological contradictions our citizenry encompasses.

Still, we corral and tame our natural divisiveness, so that decade after decade, despite our enumerable and often extreme individual differences, we remain united. So much so, that many immigrants look to our shores with a longing hope for freedom and a better life. Remarkably, the reality is, the very diversity that unites us can also divide us.

In fact, our innumerable differences and contradictions have sometimes thwarted our ability to form and evolve "a more perfect Union" that
our forefathers spoke of and envisioned us having the ability to create. Ingeniously, they crafted the Constitution to allow for the inevitable necessity of change and adaptability, as new realities and unforeseen conditions shaped our living, breathing history.

At some level of consciousness, there was then, as there is today, a realization that humanity's Achilles heel is the overwhelming tendency to view any change to the status quo as a threat. As we head toward the third century of our national history, however, if not for their insight, we would still be on foot or horseback, communicating by smoke signals and drums. Slavery, women's rights, voting rights, civil rights and all criminal and social laws would remain unchanged, and the inevitable blending of our diverse cultures, accepted societal "norms," priorities and values would be as they were in every manner. Think about that! Time marches on, and so must we as a nation. Change is not a threat... it is a necessity.

Our ability to remain a united nation and people is simplistic in concept, but complex in execution, because of our naturally occurring differences. Rendering judgments of approval or disapproval, come too easily to us. Simply put, stubbornly focusing on differences, however valid, makes us natural enemies and does nothing to serve the creation of "A more perfect union," or to protect that which serves the basic common needs of the Union and the freedoms we all cherish. Our own propensity for fear, to reject the realities that are not our own and the unwillingness or inability to consider the validity and reasons for the opposing realities others know, is the only real enemy we face. Perceptions of right or wrong are not, nor will they ever be, universally identical.

For that reason, in order to coexist peacefully and flourish in a state of natural contradictions and protect personal freedoms, we have no choice but
to resist judging all things and beings as either right or wrong. Is it really too much to ask that we strive to understand the realities others know as their truth, rather than insisting that only our perceptions and realities are real and infallible? Is there only one reality or truth? Are we capable of preserving the lawful freedoms we so fervently believe in, for those different from us, or for those only identical to us? If not, what does that mean for the future of our beloved and treasured democracy?