Why are we as a country, and maybe even a world, so split between empathy and apathy? Why is the chasm so deep between us in that regard?

To me empathy is what Jesus came to teach us. He said in no uncertain terms that we are to be our brother’s keeper. To give anyone who needs it the shirt off our back.

Then apathy is quite simply “I DON’T GIVE A SHIT”!!

There seem to be so many in the apathy group who also claim to be a Christian. They proudly say “we are a Christian Nation“. But, it seems to them that really means that all the Jews, Muslims, and Hindus, and especially the agnostics and atheist don’t deserve the same access to the 1st amendment that Christians have. Ok, now that I have this off my daily list of hypocrisy I can move on to the real point of this post.

If this divide between empathy and apathy, or maybe better described as “Friend vs Enemy” continues to deepen across various segments of the country, how much longer can we be called the “United” States of America? Will there come a point where that is just not possible? That is the topic for this post.

I will readily admit that these times are grating on my soul. Why don’t people care about others? Why are they so consumed with themselves and maybe their tribe but everyone else can just “GO TO HELL” as far as they are concerned. In the past when we faced difficulty as a nation we came together for the national good. Those times seem to be gone now. I know the pandemic has all of us on edge, and hopefully when a vaccine is available and the narcissist is finally out of the Oval Office, things “might” tone done a bit. At least that is my hope. I hate to think that I will have to live out my final years on this earth in the shape it is in right now. But, what happens if thing don’t change? What is the alternative?

Is it possible to split into 50 different entities? Or, as I suggested in a blog post a few years ago, maybe each region becomes a different country. If that were to happen what would happen to the people who are trapped into a country they simply don’t align with? All this stuff is extremely difficult to even comprehend. I certainly can’t do anything to putting a fractured puzzle back together, so I will have to consider that eventually we will all learn to live together with some semblance of agreement. After all, that is what we have generally done in the past isn’t it? We push the extremist to the edge of our society and seek the middle once again. Maybe this is just the swinging of the pendulum? It seems to have broken out the right side of the clock the last four years so it will take effort, maybe beyond our capabilities, to get it back to the center once again.

These time do indeed grate on my soul