Opening up email every morning is an experience we all share and while we all get a lot of junk email and a lot of email we don’t care about, sometimes there is that one email that hits you and stays with you.
That’s what happened this week. The email was a daily devotion entitled Divide and Conquer, which derives from a Latin term that means gaining power by breaking up large concentrations of power into pieces and basically causing rivalries and discord among people.
Sound familiar? Few if any will disagree that what is going on in politics in our country has divided us.
But the divide did not start with Donald Trump becoming president, nor did it start with former President Barack Obama being president. He too was accused of causing division instead of working to end it.
In fact the divide was even present during at least the last four years of the George W. Bush presidency.
But it doesn’t take a social scientist to see how this divide that’s been growing has become wider and has spawned noisy protests, politically targeted boycotts and even some calls already for impeachment.
It’s easy to say that we’ve never been as divided as a country as we are today.
But remember, we’ve been divided before. From our beginnings leading up to the Revolutionary War and then almost a hundred years later during the deadly civil war.
Our founders reminded us that united we stand and divided we fall. And it was President Lincoln who reminded us of the consequences of a house divided.
Maybe our leaders will look back in history for some guidance and look ahead for some hope. And that our prayers and our individual actions also will help us become more united and less divided than we are now.