OUR VIEW: Unity needed despite differences

We’ve heard time and time again that a house divided cannot stand. Looking back on our country’s history, we can see times of turmoil in which our nation was bitterly divided on one issue or another, such as the Civil War or the battle for civil rights or the feminist movement. We are still dealing with the repercussions of some of these divisions. Recently, however, we haven’t had any social disturbances like that. No, we have stood solidly together, united as one, because we are an advance nation, right?

Unfortunately, we live in a two-state nation, divided among the blue and the red, the white and the black, the gay and the straight. There are two sides to every argument and lately it seems as though Americans find themselves equally divided on each of them.

With the upcoming election, we find heated political debates are all too easy to start. This election in particular hits on many other sensitive issues beyond a simple contest of Democrat vs. Republican. Because of the presidential candidates, we find ourselves once again pondering the issue of race. Because of past candidates and the Republican vice-presidential candidate, we again consider gender. Three states are voting on propositions to amend their respective constitutions to define marriage.

As a democratic nation, it is an impossibility to please everyone; the point of elections is simply to try and please as many people as possible or, in other words, the majority. Many of these elections are very close, with the possibility that a few hundred votes could make the difference. In these cases, almost half of voters will be disappointed. This can cause a bitter divide long after the fact. Some people still haven’t gotten over Bush’s narrow slide over Al Gore in 2000. We find such division localized, too, even within our little university. The smoking ban has caused great differences of opinion even among non-smokers.

This is no way to run a country, or a school. Times are tough. Wall Street is unstable, to say the least. We are engaged in a war whether you support it or not. Our country is rounding a corner in an extremely volatile world. We don’t know what’s going to happen tomorrow. For all we know, WWIII could erupt next week. With such uncertainty, we can’t afford to be anything less than united as a community, as a nation. Heck, world peace would be the best, but that’s probably a little much to hope for at this point.

We don’t all have to agree on presidential candidates or policies or even flavors of ice cream. Vanilla may very well be better than chocolate but that’s not really important. What’s important is that we unite over something, anything, because we’re all stuck here on this little rock together and have to get along somehow.