National Unity

During the Korean War General MacArthur was fired by President Truman. A special senate hearing was held in order to review MacArthur's removal and the state of the war more broadly. The Smithsonian has a very interesting article outlining those hearings. However, that is not the point here. I was reading it and a quote from the committee's public findings leaped out at me.

“The issues which might divide our people are far transcended by the things which unite them. If threatened danger becomes war, the aggressor would find at one stroke arrayed against him the united energies, the united resources, and the united devotion of all the American people.”

Is that true today?

I think it clearly was during WWII and when the quote was written in the early 1950's I'm sure it still was. However, I am not sure that is true in the US anymore. I am unsure that there are many things that unite us as a nation anymore. There just aren't the fundamental values that seemed to be largely shared at that time.

Many people do not value or even desire the principals that our nation was founded on. Freedom of speech. Personal responsibility. Love of country. We increasingly see those around us as enemies and threats.

I certainly hope our differences are "far transcended by the things which unite" us. But these days I see the former a lot more. I hope I am just blind to those uniting forces.