5 Words That Unite U.S.

By Bob Cox

Just two days after celebrating his 69^th birthday and during his presidential announcement speech on June 16, 2015, Donald J. Trump made this bold and controversial statement: “When Mexico sends its people, they’re not sending their best. They’re bringing drugs. They’re bringing crime. They’re rapists. And some, I assume, are good people”. Over 500 excruciatingly long and bitterly contested days later and to the astonishment of the world, Trump pulled off the most incredible upset in U.S. political history and in less than two months, he will be sworn in as America’s 45^th president.

As I reflect upon everything that’s happened and recall the heated debates from surrogates representing both parties, there’s one fact that cannot be overlooked: we appear to once again be a nation divided, with small pockets of blue democrats battling large swaths of territory occupied by red republicans. Ironically, red is the color of blood, but only after it leaves our body. It’s blue while it courses through our veins.   

Our first great divide occurred during the 1860’s, when our country was geographically split in two as the northern states stuck together and defeated the southern states in a horrifying blood bath over slavery. A century later, another conflagration separated Americans. That time, it was a war being fought in a tiny country halfway around the world and it divided our generations in half as large numbers of our citizens railed against the establishment for overdue equal rights.  

Today, we have a new divide, with large ethnically diverse urban centers casting the vast majority of votes for the democratic candidate while smaller communities all across the land banded together to support the republican nominee. For example, in Cullman, Alabama 87.8% of the 80,811 residents chose Donald Trump while 951 miles to the north, people from the Bronx, New York casted their votes for Hillary Clinton by an even slightly wider margin (88.7%). While Trump handily earned more than enough electoral votes required (270) to win the election (As of  November 15, 2016, he was ahead 290 to 232), there was roughly an equal split in the total number of popular votes, with 61,324,576 total votes (50.3%) for Clinton and 60,526,852 million total votes (49.7%) for Trump. 

The good news is our country has survived enormous divisions before and I’m confident we’ll come together again, stronger and wiser than ever. Why am I so confident in these times of such unsettling uncertainty? Because I believe that despite our glaring differences, the one thing that unites every sane American are the last 5 words we say during our pledge of allegiance as we cast our eyes upon our star spangled flag while holding our right hand to our hearts: LIBERTY AND JUSTICE FOR ALL.

Since I’ve been in outside advertising sales over the last quarter of a century, I’ve walked through the doors of thousands of businesses in the greater Sacramento area and have met the most amazing and inspiring people, many of them who’ve recently migrated to America. They came here because of those 5 words, an ideal that could not be achieved wherever they came from. A lot of these folks arrived with empty pockets but their hearts were full, energized with the desire to live the American dream. They took a courageous leap of faith and they’ve enriched me beyond words with their drive to succeed in business and in life.

So, am I biased about being pro immigration? Of course I am. But I also understand the importance of keeping our citizens safe from fugitives and terrorists, which are a small but unacceptable number that have slipped through the cracks from abroad, so I do support a thorough and comprehensive vetting process.

Mostly though, I’ve had the very good fortune of getting to know hundreds of immigrants as well as many other small business owners from all walks of life. I’ve seen how these entrepreneurs have persevered through a variety of extreme obstacles and they all share one thing in common in spite of how different they are in physical appearance: They stopped complaining from the comforts of the back seat and grabbed the steering wheel.

I believe that is exactly what the rest of us need to do to create a better life for ourselves, our children and future generations. Although we are all scrunched together on this tiny blue orb spinning through space at blinding speeds, we are governed by something much larger and wiser, the universal law of cause and effect. To break that down in its simplest terms, the world that we live in today is the result of an accumulation of choices and actions from the past.

This is a concept I feel excited about. Why?  Because it’s not too late to learn from past choices that yielded a negative result and then make a new decision while working towards creating a better today and tomorrow. On the other hand; we can only achieve this if we choose to  face our fears about the unknown and make at least one positive change today. A great place to begin is to ask ourselves and our neighbor’s one soul searching question: Is there LIBERTY AND JUSTICE FOR ALL?

If our answer is no, what are we willing to do to change that? I think a great place to start is to venture into the territory of the people that represent the opposing color and ask them the same question: Is there LIBERTY AND JUSTICE FOR ALL? I believe our democratic representatives need to do more to reach out and help members of our red communities and our republican representatives need to do the same in our blue cities.  

In the final analysis, many political pundits thought that the people who voted for Trump were sick of losing and watching their factories and communities wither away, while people that voted for Clinton were fearful that Trump would unravel the hard fought justice gained by large and diverse groups of oppressed citizens. We need and deserve strong, fair and wise leaders, from the white house to our house, people that are determined to achieve LIBERTY AND JUSTICE FOR ALL. We also have to hold them accountable to achieve this dream set forth by our founding fathers 12 generations ago.