"WHICH SIDE ARE YOU ON?"

The refrain from the old, emotional song confronts us with the choices we have to make in life.  Unfortunately, too many of us ONLY see the world as one in which one feels the MUST to ALWAYS support this side or that, especially in political matters.  We are a lesser nation for it.

All you have to do is identify a statement or program with a name and decisions are made without any knowledge of the relative merits.  We have become a nation of knee-jerk ideologues.  I don't know about the knees particularly, but we certainly have become jerks.

The free interchange of ideas and opinions has been lost.  Civilized discussion and civilization itself have taken a giant step backward.  We have shot ourselves in the foot.  We are so blinded by partisan reaction and judgment that the very act of moving forward is suspect.  We have become comfortable in our own excrement.  We are not the democratic nation we once were; our leadership among nations has taken some very serious hits.  We seem to take pride in partisanship and in the process have become either oblivious or uncaring about our sinking reputation in the world.

We hold onto sexual slips by "the other side."  We cannot get Bill Clinton's adultery out of our minds, and act as though this gives us license to act against the best interests of the general public.  Somehow we choose to forget the adulterous behavior of presidents through the years: Harding [GOP], FDR [Dem.], Eisenhower [GOP], JFK [Dem.], Reagan [GOP], Clinton [Dem.].  Taking sides on this issue seems to be a self-defeating effort.  We might  mention even candidates for President have had their adulterous behaviors [Edwards, Gingrich, etc.].  So???

It is high time we get ahold of ourselves and begin to act as adults.  It is beyond high time that we begin to make intelligent decisions, regardless of political party or some pigeon-holed ideology.  And we have to communicate this to our ignorant, partisan politicians.  Let us act as Americans, and see our potential as a nation and as a society.  Culture is not only relevant to cheese.  Let us see the United States of America for its great potential and not restrict this nation from it.  We are killing the very nation we claim to love.  We are playing out a plot of doom for America.