For the past 364 days we have all been labeled at one time or another as either Democrat, Republican, Independent, Conservative, Pro Choice, Pro Life, Straight, Gay, LGBTQ, pro police, anti-police, pro open borders, anti open borders, For Black Lives Matter, Against Black Lives Matter, pro Trump, anti Trump, pro Biden, anti Biden, for the death penalty, against the death penalty, pro 2nd amendment, pro gun control and the list goes on and on. We don’t need to worry about Russia or China beating us, we are killing ourselves from within. With every new category we create, we are dividing ourselves from each other further and further.

We’re at each other’s throats on every issue instead of calmly having sensible discussion like adults should. 24/7 365 days a year, round the clock news may be the worst thing that ever happened to this country. When we were kids or even young adults, the news would come on at 6:00 pm for an hour and 11:00 pm, for a half hour. Then came Johnny Carson. That’s it. Nothing was sensationalized. Nothing was opinionated. The actual facts were presented and you were left to make your own decisions. Now, stations need to fill up 24 hours of around the clock news instead of one hour. How do you do that without blowing everything, every issue way out of proportion? You can’t. So you sensationalize everything and get people to argue with each other and sometimes hate each other and at our worst, we have even lost personal friendships along the way.

So here we are…July 4th, 2022. It’s our nation’s 246th birthday. Today, we celebrate the birth of the greatest country the world has ever seen. We provided sanctuary for more immigrants, cured more illnesses, allowed more religious and economic freedom than any other country ever. We landed a man on the moon, created the automobile and the telephone, saved the world from the Nazis and tyranny and continue to be the shining beacon on the hill. It’s why, despite the fact that we are not perfect, people from every country all over the world want to come here, because they know that in America if you work hard you can become anything you want to be.

So today, let’s just celebrate our birthday. Let’s just celebrate the fact that basically a bunch of farmers beat the world’s greatest military giving us our own precious country to run as we see fit. I think all in all America has done an incredible job. Let’s not forget that and more importantly, let’s not destroy it. So today, let’s forget all the categories they now lump us into. For one day, let’s just call ourselves Americans.