If we don't hang together...

Benjamin Franklin once told his fellow colleagues that "We must indeed hang together, or most assuredly we shall all hang separately." Problem is, in today's polarized world, we are literally being forced to turn on each other. We are so filled with anger that we can't seem to stand together on anything.

Whether it's the right or the left, there are those who literally demand that we believe certain things their way. Example from my life: I don't have to believe in the rampant killing of wolves just because they are wolves, but some on the right think I should. Liberals demand that I believe in never killing one. Wholesale slaughter of any wildlife is disgusting to me, whether it's a wolf or a wild horse. I believe in the right to hunt game animals for food. But trophy hunting is abhorrant to me. Killing for the sake of killing is a spirit of murder, no different than serial killers who kill for the thrill of watching the life drain out of someone. That's why I hate abortion- it's flat out murder. We must be balanced in what we believe in, or we will become that which we have worked so hard to stand against.

I will stand with even the most militant conservatives, many of whom are former military and know what they've sacrificed for freedom. I may not agree with everything they say, but I believe in them and will not turn against them because of intimidation from the left or the right. My Dad brought me up to walk against "peer pressure" and do what is right instead. I frankly don't care what people say to me, I will walk according to my beliefs. My view is decidedly Christian, so I believe in loving my enemy- but love does not mean condoning an action. Sometimes loves requires being held responsible. That goes for everything from a wayward kid who steals or uses drugs to a politician who tries to destroy our freedom. In this country, if we do not exercise our rights, we will lose them to people whose drive for power outweighs the rights that people like Ben Franklin fought so hard to give us. WE MUST hang together.