Have you watched the news recently? It’s exhausting. It’s frustrating. It’s filled with situations that, if you submitted them to Random House, they would most likely tell you, “we publish fiction, but this is just too unbelievable to print.”

The election that is coming at the end of this year has sparked such debate and controversy that it’s made most Americans embarrassed as we have become the brunt of the world’s jokes. But this has happened before. Many times.

In Springfield, Ill., June of 1858, Abraham Lincoln called Stephen Douglas a co-conspirator to legalize slavery and gave the famous “House Divided” speech. Three weeks later, a few miles north, in Chicago, Douglas denied the charges and brought charges of his own against Lincoln, calling him “a dangerous radical.” And the slinging of mud went forth like that for quite some time.

The arguing and accusations caused a great split. The split was enhanced with the addition of public debates. 

Next up, the year was 2000. Hanging chads. Anyone remember that? Robert Salladay of The San Francisco Examiner posted an article back then which may jog your memory. I will print only a portion: 

“Even though voters across the nation picked two mainstream presidential candidates with traditional messages, enough wounds were opened during the past few weeks to make the battle between Vice President Al Gore and Texas Gov. George W. Bush as nasty and suspenseful as the unexpectedly tough primaries.”

It’s one thing to have siblings fighting, but we must remember that at times, only the divine can step in to bring us back to unity and to remind us that we are family. One Nation. Under God. Indivisible. With liberty and justice for all. 

Those words are probably not all that familiar in this day and age, as even our pledge has been tainted and tampered with by the spirit of political correctness and governmental infighting. “Friendly fire” in America has not been so “friendly” of late.

So, Lincoln was sworn in on March 4, 1861. Civil war broke out in April of the same year. 2001 George Bush is sworn into office. The country was split and bickering like the battling Bickersons. September 11 comes around. 9/11. Lives are gone in an instant and we eventually begin a conflict in the Middle East that we are still fighting today.

Doesn’t it seem odd that it takes just a few things to get us so bent out of shape and we let the little things snowball until the hatred is out of control? It then takes a disaster of epic proportion to bring us plumb. To remind us that truly a house divided is neither healthy nor able to stand. 

It reminds me of siblings fighting in the back seat of the car before the inception of seat belts. Not heeding the warnings from the front seat, the fighting escalates to the point of not even being able to hear the voice from up there. 

And then, it happens. Out of nowhere. Suddenly and without warning. Dad puts his foot down. On the brake pedal. Hard. Causing both combatants to actually take flight momentarily and then crash to a heap on the floor, closer to the wrath of the hand of the one they refused to listen to. Out of crisis came unity, and a bit of whimpering.

Our country become so caught up in the hatred that we no longer hear the voice of reason.

Bringing America plumb. What will it take this time? Perhaps a quarantine. Perhaps the fear of death itself to bring life back into a dying body. Perhaps putting people in the same room and making them work together to find a solution. A camaraderie. A cure.

It’s time to bring the medicine for COVID-19 virus and for the sickness in our political arena.