On April 4, 1968, in Indianapolis, Senator Robert Kennedy, upon hearing that Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr had been assassinated, said in his extemporaneous speech, “What we need in the United States is not division; what we need in the United States is not hatred; what we need in the United States is not violence or lawlessness; but love and wisdom, and compassion toward one another, and a feeling of justice toward those who still suffer within our country…”
Yet here we are decades later, and we aren’t really any closer to loving our neighbor, being more peaceful or law-abiding, and, in many cases, we've forsaken compassion, dismissed justice, and foregone our obligations to those most vulnerable and still suffering greatly in this nation. While it has to be acknowledged that there are plenty of people and organizations who have made it their point to do right by the people by providing those most in need with aid and comfort, there are plenty of those other citizens, however, who don’t seem to care about the poor and downtrodden, or simply dismiss such people out of their minds.
The United States is truly at a crossroads, and desperately needs not just the right leadership to deal with its systemic troubles, but also to have the wherewithal to do the right thing through that leadership, as compared to favoring the superrich individuals and corporations that pretty much have it to be their way, and thereby primarily share as little as possible with the American public, and care not to be fair to them, or to contribute their fair share in taxation and in giving back to the country that provided them with the opportunity to achieve such great wealth.
So too, the animosity and uncivility that we see from those that are our politicians towards one another while also being imposed upon the people, again and again, is thus serving to divide us ever further -- whereas the objective of the lesson here in America, should be to become a true melting pot, of people that have originated from different nationalities, different religions, and different circumstances, to ultimately come together into one body politic, to help make this nation a great nation, of truth, justice, and liberty, for all.
Indeed, the United States of America seems to have lost its values, and replaced selflessness and service, with the wrong belief that each of us should be about getting as much as we personally can and thereby the devil take the hindmost, which quite obviously reflects not only the worse of capitalism but also demonstrates that this government supposedly of, for, and by the people has deviated from its good purposes to not support the most vulnerable, but instead to almost exclusively favor those that are the power brokers of this nation to the exclusion of the people that it should and ought to serve.
Where this nation goes from here really comes down to the people of this land, for the change that we so desire is going to have to come from those that will not deviate from standing upon the principles that love, civility, justice and unity are the true mark of a great nation and that it is our incumbent duty to take care of our people first by turning our swords into plowshares, and utilizing some of our collective wealth to build a solid foundation for those that are fairly entitled to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness by providing all that live within our borders with the fair opportunity to live in decent housing, to be educated, and to have the opportunity to become something of merit by a system that does not unfairly close the door upon them.
The decision of where we go comes forth from what we truly are at heart, for united we stand and divided we fall.