Dear Editor,
A Great Divide
It seems that nowadays truth and facts depend on which news channel you watch and what political party you belong to. It’s almost as though people are living with completely different sets of world views and outlooks for where we are, what we should do and where we should be. How long can this sociological divide last for before it causes irreparable harm to our culture, ideals, and country?
It used to be that no matter what your worldview or political party, we all shared a common bond. We were all American. Inherent in this classification was an understanding that we were all working together in order to form a more perfect union. We understood that there were differences on certain issues and ideas, but we all understood that we were bonded together by ideals and democratic institutions that guided all to the same logical conclusion. We needed to work together to effectively govern ourselves and we had the same goals in mind; life liberty and the pursuit of happiness.
Somehow along the way these institutions that bonded us together have been eroding. They continue to degrade and it’s causing unprecedented geopolitical instability that is only getting worse. The bar keeps getting lower and lower and we keep doubling down on flawed conclusions that repeating the same behavior will yield a different result. I am afraid that the only way we will break this cycle is after a catastrophic failure of the current system that we have enjoyed for so long.
At that point, we as a nation will have a choice, do we repeat history and fall like so many great nations before us or do we learn from our mistakes and bond together to come out stronger and more resilient? My hope is that we do not fail, but that we realize that we must act differently. We must work together with people of different backgrounds, opinions, races, creeds and ideals to find common ground to build bridges that can unite us and bring back from the precipice of this dangerous uncharted territory we are facing.
My solution to this problem is not easy, it requires hard work, time and compromise. It starts by understanding that together we can accomplish so much more and by getting involved in our electoral process.
Mark Lago, Candidate for the City of South Miami Commission, Group IV
