A Call for Unity
Abraham Lincoln once said, “A house divided against itself cannot stand”. This is as true today as the day Lincoln uttered it.
We are at a momentous period in our history. This is a time of great challenges for us, but it is also a time of tremendous opportunities. I propose to you today that to win against the enemies who threaten our country’s security and meet the challenges of a difficult economy we have to make a great national sacrifice.
This admittedly difficult sacrifice is first and foremost about putting aside petty party differences to work together for the common good of our beloved country, the country that has nurtured, protected and defended us all our lives. This means no longer bashing the other party or its individual members but genuinely working together with them with all options available to us on the table. It means genuinely caring more about America than we do about party agendas or about what is politically correct and expedient. It means working together to correct mistakes of the past instead of doing our utmost to point the finger of blame toward the other party or person. While dissent is a very desirable American quality, we cannot allow dissent to deteriorate into vitriol that painfully and irrevocably divides us, because unity in the face of a fearsome enemy is also a desirable American quality. It was unity of purpose and resolve that helped America and its allies to stand and ultimately triumph against the evil that was Nazi Germany. It was this same unity that brought our founding fathers together who then risked everything they had in the service of the common cause of freedom. It was the lack of this unity of purpose that nearly tore our nation apart during the civil war, a horrific conflict that claimed at least 618,000 American lives.
In the face of our current economic and security challenges we have an important choice to make. Do we choose to surge forward as one to retain and advance our greatness as a nation, or do we let America down and continue to bitterly fight amongst ourselves? Do we become the generation that started another great era in American history or do we lose ourselves in an endless internal conflict?
