I really don’t think our current state of being in the U.S. is desirable to any of us living outside the beltway. I believe there is an underlying hunger for all of us to connect with each other. That is what this post is all about.

I have been searching for a couple of years now to discover why there are apparently so many MAGA people in America. What makes them so fearful about what is happening to our country? I wish I could figure these folks out, but then again, I don’t believe that they have figured it out either.

I know we are social animals who have clung to each other throughout our existence. We all just want to live our lives in peace and don’t really want a cultural war that we currently find ourselves in. Don’t we all want the same things? We want our families to be safe, education and good jobs for our kids.

We need to just stop screaming at each other and withdraw our unqualified defense of our chosen political party. After all, they are the ones who likely got us where we are in the first place.

We all want the same things.

We all want the big corporations to pay their fair share of taxes. We all know they should give a responsible share of their profits to the workers who made them a successful corporation instead of giving it all to those who own their stocks. But we also know businesses, large and small, deserve our respect when they provide us with excellent service, products and jobs. They don’t need to be driven out of existence for doing their job too well.

We all feel we pay too much taxes and get very little from them. Is part of that due to our selfishness or maybe wanting something for nothing? Have we also dehumanized the other side? Maybe it’s time we just started treating each other with respect instead of enemies. We are all in this together and all want the same things.

Some of our institutions like our present congress and many media outlets have been also consumed by tribal warfare. For the most part, our once trusted media outlets are now thoroughly in the partisan game. We simply don’t know who to trust anymore? There is just too much warfare trying to tear our country apart. Who do we trust to guide us to what would benefit us the most? Who do we trust to bring us together?

Many of our once trusted institutions have become beaten down in the process. This includes our schools, our prisons, and our welfare systems. They treat their customers as units to be processed instead of people to be served. They seem to have lost the ability to treat us as human beings. How do we change that?

Yes, human beings are often selfish and self-interested. But, we are also at our core supremely social and collaborative. This is the part we need to work on now to bring us back from the brink. Are we up to that task and who bravely will take the first step?