There's Got to be One Thing Americans Agree On: As Soon as I Find It, I'll Tell You

I can't help cringing when I hear about The United States of America when I know damn well we aren't even close to being united.

You'd think that a nation of 340 million people (with more being born every day) would find more than one subject that is nearly universal, or at least one thing that unites us.

Once a slam dunk, patriotism no longer unites us because the word has become bastardized by the far-right. It's meaning has been drug through the fever swamps of MAGA followers and distorted.

Remember when America was united against Communist Russia? It was viewed as a threat to our democracy. 

Now we have political extremists who say Putin and Russia are not our main enemy in the fight for freedom.

Americans can't even decide if women should have the right to their own bodies.

I remember when libraries were treated as a boon to the American people and had everyone's respect. Every town wanted a library because they represented knowledge and freedom to learn. 

Today libraries are under fire by flame-throwing conservatives who want to ban books or to shut them down (like they did in one county in Texas) and turn them into discipline centers.

Growing up I was taught to respect teachers like the rest of my peers. They held a position of authority and importance in the society: even while getting low wages.

Pursuing science has always been a noble gesture in every culture where truth is sought about the world we live in and a way of confirming facts that everyone with an education could agree on.

In the last eight years science has become suspect with Trump's supporters shining lights up their butts to get rid of COVID.

Instead of recognizing that wearing face masks were a scientifically proven way to slow down the spread of a virus Trump cult members refused to wear them in order to prove how stupid they were.

Once upon a time the majority of Americans wouldn't even have considered a presential candidate that carried the heavy baggage Trump does. 

Now Republicans say they'd vote for him no matter how many times he was convicted of crimes. They'd even be okay if he has to run his presidential campaign out of a jail cell.

Traditions, norms, laws and civility have become casualties in our cultural wars that have left us with red and blue states. 

As it stands, if there's one thing, we can all agree on, I haven't found it yet. I'm still looking.