A View from the Deck: Divided we are Failing

Some brilliant individual once stated that “United we stand, but divided we fall.”
(Aesop originally said in in one of his fables, but Patrick Henry was the
person most Americans attribute it to, but that’s not the point.)

In the original woodcut that the now-famous Gadsden (Don’t Tread on Me) Flag
borrowed from, Benjamin Franklin depicted a snake severed into several parts,
these parts representing the various colonies. The saying on the woodcut was ‘Join or Die’.

Franklin was trying to tell the people that they had to put aside their individuality
and form together as a WHOLE, with the diverse issues of the people of the
individual colonies secondary to the issue that was most important…

FREEDOM.

And yet everywhere we look nowadays, some special-interest group is out screaming for its recognition as an individual, separate part, rather than becoming a part of the whole. The whole, in this case, being our country...

The UNITED STATES OF AMERICA.

Diversity is NOT always a good thing. Not back in Franklin’s time, and most assuredly, NOT in our world today. In order to face the future, a future full of uncertainty, we MUST join together. We must put aside individual differences. We must be ONE. We must become that which our Founding Fathers envisioned. We must, as the woodcut stated, 'Join or Die'.

Diversity has gone too far, and has created a chasm within our country among average AMERICAN citizens. Why must we draw attention to pointless, superficial differences, when we are all, first and foremost, AMERICANS?

Why, rather than calling ourselves African , Hispanic, Asian, or European, thus drawing attention to our differences, can we not simply take pride in being called
AMERICANS?

When people chose to come to this country, for whatever reason, should they not
embrace their new homeland and celebrate it, rather than attempting to turn it
into a colony of the country they left? And did they leave their former country because they were happy there?

“Divide and Conquer.” Ever heard that? That was said by Julius Caesar as he prepared to cross the Rubicon and enter Rome, changing it from a Republic into an Empire.

Caesar divided the people from the Senate on issues and ended up conquering
Rome in mere days.

But that could never happen here, right?

Are you sure it hasn’t already?

At the time of this writing, Americans, ALL Americans, are more heavily split over
socio-economic issues than at any time in our county’s history, and many of the
edumacated, degree-laden, pontificators of pointless theorems continue to exacerbate the problem, by insisting that we must “Envelope our individual and cultural diversities and cling to them, remaining true to our native heritage, and never allow ourselves to become indoctrinated into the masses and losing our grip on our true culture.”

What a crock!

I’m not going the belabor the issues of unfair hiring practices and quotas in this
blog, nor am I going to call attention to the purposeful incitement of racial
tensions, many brought about by some of the well-known civil rights groups (the
ACLU being the biggest inciter of these) in our country.

I’m also not going to share my disgust over the foreign flags flying over people’s
homes or businesses, or the language barriers that have resulted by those that
refuse to learn to communicate with fellow Americans.

And I'm certainly NOT going to go off on illegal immigrants.

Rather, I’m going to tell you a story…

There once was a cook, a great cook, who was about to share his latest creation with the rest of the world. A stew. A stew unlike any other ever before, one that
combined exotic ingredients from all over the world.

He set about preparing his stew, but a man that liked salt came to him and said
“You need more salt. The salt brings out flavors.”

So, wanting to please the man, he added more salt.

“You need more pepper,” Another told him, one that liked pepper, so, again, wanting to please the man, he added more pepper.

“More celery,” one said. “More meat,” said another. “No, the basil overwhelms the thyme, add more.” And so it went, on and on, the cook making certain that each ingredient stood out.

The time came to present the stew before all the world, and people lined up to taste this fabulous creation…

And each of them spat the stew out of their mouths onto the ground, saying that it was “Too salty,” or “Too much pepper,” or even “Not enough basil.”

The cook’s reputation was ruined, so he went home , vowing to never again cook. His wife left him, the bank foreclosed on his home, and he ended up on the street, and in a drunken stupor, was run over by a garbage truck.

Do you get it yet? If so, let me know.

If you disagree with my observations, well, that’s your right, as an AMERICAN.