Divided We Fall

Despite all of our progress and education, despite all of our rhetoric and the fact that our nation was founded upon the principle that "all men were created equal," folks continue to divide themselves up by race, creed, religion and a host of other categories. At one time, many decades ago, this seemed to be mostly a black/white problem. While remnants of those issues clearly remain, the melting pot of American demographics has created a plethora of other groups, even subcultures, withing our great melting pot. That is a wonderful thing, and one of the foundations of our open society. However, in recent decades, especially since the sixties, we have seen ourselves begin to divide up again. More and more focus has been placed on cultural, religious and origin heritage that it has begun to erode our national heritage. Even in an open society like ours, there is a danger in drawing any cultural lines to boldly. When we begin to call ourselves something besides American we chip away at the pride and unity which goes with that broader title. We divide up upon racial line, party lines, ethnic lines, religious lines and so on ... becoming so inclusive as to actually be exclusive, while we lobby and vote along those same lines. Let us, as Americans, remember that the nature of being a melting pot is the melting part, the concept that we melting into one people. What makes the nation great is the sharing of a common heritage, that of being American. We're still drawing lines, trying to keep others in or out or away, or whatever. Yet, those lines need to be dotted lines because, in the end, we are all in this together.

Divided We Fall
Brick upon brick, we build our walls
With blocks of resentment and pride
We raise up lofty barricades
Then, drawing lines, we step to one side
Proclaiming we, the elite, shall stand
Over here, where no one else may
We demand that everyone take his place
Or there will be hell to pay
Through the ages we've added more bricks to the wall
And a host of new rules to the game
Which have clouded the issues and stirred the pot
But the outcome is always the same
It is always the group that draws the lines
And imposes them on the rest
Which seems to have the most to gain
And which seems to become obsessed
With making sure that only a few
May have the privileges they have known
For if all men were equal they'd have to share
The spoils they claim as their own
While the rest of humanity cowers outside
Degraded and left in the cold
By a system which robs them of their rights
Crushing even the wise and the bold
Yet, the greatest injustice about the system
Each man has been shackled within
Is the shallowness of the parameters
Which doom him before he can begin
Neither race, nor creed, nor country
Are the sum of any being
They are merely the cover of a book
Which may contain treasures unseen
Any system that judges a man
By his temporal exterior
Has done a disservice to all of mankind
By promoting dissension and fear
For only a system which looks each man
In the eye without judging him first
Is worthy of judging a man at all
Without predestining him to be cursed
So the next time you find a brick in your hand
And you're tempted to work on a wall
Find a bridge that needs repair
And do a service to us all
By Frank Carpenter ©