One nation under God
Drippin’ Life
My father was a student at UT until the United States entered World War II. All three of his daughters earned degrees from UT. So, did four of his grandchildren. We all grew up, loving the school’s traditions. Unlike last year, this year the Texas Longhorns won the Red River Rivalry when they played OU in the Cotton Bowl…and if you’ve never been, Texas-OU Weekend in Dallas add this one for your bucket list of fun times.
In high school, our traditional rival was Highland Park High School. Before every game we wore spirit ribbons that said- “Sink the Tea-sips” or “Skunk the Scots.” It was always fun to win that rivalry, too.
Over the past several years, however, some political rivalries have developed that are more mean-spirited than fun, more snark than substance. I’m talking about the red state – blue state rivalry. Republicans versus Democrats, Liberals versus conservatives. And, during last election, the “Anybody but Hillary” against the “Never Trump-ers.”
I’ve heard Republican parents say they’d never allow their daughters to marry a Democrat and I’ve seen entire families stop speaking to each other because of differing political ideologies – and these wars of hurtful silence lasted way past elections. Some endure for years.
I wish it was different, but current political differences have split the country from coast to coast and border to border…and caught in the deepening chasm between the reds and the blues are issues that may never be resolved – important issues like voting rights, citizenship, education, healthcare and the environment.
President John F. Kennedy got it right when he said: “Let us not seek the Republican answer or the Democratic answer but the right answer. Let us not fix blame for the past. Let us accept our own responsibility for the future.”
Sometimes, when our nation seems to be spinning out of control, I wish I could invite everyone to Dripping Springs so they could see how a whole community comes together for a common cause…so “Aginners” and “Naysayers” could experience how a diverse population gets behind a goal and pushes together until they cross the finish line.
I wish others in our nation could see how people of all ages, all religious denominations, all points of origin work together to make the Dripping Springs community better today than it was yesterday…and when someone needs help, I wish those debating “us against them” could see how a VFW Post and the American Legion or a football team, a middle school or a church congregation comes together to provide whatever is needed to make an individual or a family whole again.
As a first grader, I proudly learned “The Pledge of Allegiance.” I learned it before they added “under God.” So, with my hand over my six-year-old heart, looking up in childish wonder at the flag flying patriotically in front of my elementary school, I recited: “One nation, indivisible with liberty and justice for all.”
If only our children and grandchildren could live in such an “indivisible” country, where civil discourse was the rule rather than the exception, where our leaders upheld the highest of values and elected offices were won by the will of the voters and not by the size of a campaign’s war chest.
When Dwight David Eisenhower was president of our country, I never heard one disrespectful word about him. Maybe some didn’t vote for him, but I don’t remember people of either party disliking him, although I’m sure he wasn’t perfect. Like all presidents, Ike made mistakes…but there was respect –bi-partisan respect for the man, respect for the presidency, respect for the responsibilities he shouldered and the job he did on our behalf.
Today we seem to be in turmoil, but I believe one day our country will truly be the UNITED States. I will never lose hope.