Much has changed over the past 18 years, but I think many of us can agree that we are not a more perfect union now compared to pre-Sept. 11, 2001. That fault doesn’t lie solely at the feet of the guy in the White House, as we the people own much of the blame for where we are today.
We put our hopes and dreams at the feet of the wrong people. We think an Instagram Influencer, a Yoohoo YouTuber, a Tweeting Toddler, a Cable News Charlatan, or a Pied Piping Politician is going to magically provide a messianic cure to what ails us.
The answer doesn’t lie there.
It lies in the young adult on their first flight home to their family after enlisting in the Navy. Their parents enrolled this young adult in a military school to turn a life around that was spiraling down the wrong path.
It lies in two first-generation Americans, one of whom was working full time while going to school at night, the other of whom was the parent of an Army vet who died due to PTSD.
Those three stories are the more perfect union. They were on my recent flight home from LA, seated in the row I was seated in. And they are three of 330 million uniquely American stories, many of which are much better role models than those who get the most attention.
You want a better country? Find the answers in each of us. Listen. Learn. Love. Tolerate. We’re only more perfect when we work together, not when we fray apart.
Tom Thunstrom
Lewes
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