Putting ideology over the nation?

How important is your political ideology? Does it define you? Are you a liberal Democrat or conservative Republican before all else? Or maybe you're independent, or down with peace and freedom. Whichever way you lean, how important is it to you?

How important is your country?

Are the best interests of its people as a collective whole more important than whether or not your candidate “wins?”

Are you voting “for” something or someone? Or are you voting against something or someone? Is attacking the other guy or guys more important than giving your nation what it needs to heal, even if what it needs is somewhere between what you want and what they want?

What if what your country needs is not partisanship at all?

Here's another question. Can we, the people, get past our petty and vindictive natures?

I believe we can, though it will require much of us. We will need to compromise some of our highly prized ideology and possibly even sacrifice something in the way of position or advancement for ourselves or our favorite candidate. Though I also acknowledge that to each person some things are beyond compromise. For me that would be the sanctity of human life. Maybe it's something different for you.

What we're talking about is a revival of this country, and not just of religious values, but also political and socioeconomic. We are so concerned with advancing our “team,” whichever that is we forget about or marginalize sometimes entire groups of people that need our attention, and our help.

We can't help anyone with our heads in the sand or somewhere ... else.

Seriously, though. The country is no more beyond saving than the people who live in it.

We just have to do the work, and the problem with that is the current generation is often all about entitlements. What's the answer? I don't know. I just know that tearing at each other's throats every four years is not helping, and political rhetoric is something that wins elections and not much else.

Thomas Wilkins
Yuma