At any time of peace, there is room for divisive issues to arise in the general public. Republican or Democrat, liberal or conservative, pro-choice or pro-life, chocolate or vanilla, whatever people can argue about, they'll do it. This is a natural human occurrence, for each one of us should know undoubtedly that nothing gives us more pleasure than the joy of being correct or defending their beliefs through knowledge and fact. That being said, we are not at a time of peace, we are not arguing properly, and when we do argue, we argue without fact.
Only a few short years ago, we were attacked unaware by terrorists, representatives of those who have no clue of how to argue properly. Many of us lost significant members of our families, myself included. Never will I forget what happened that fateful day and I often think to myself, I hope to God that people do not forget either. Being a historiphile, I see a dangerous pattern arising through generations. Learning about World War II, I became aware of the horrific happenings at the attack on Pearl Harbor, December 7th, 1941. One such as myself, who believed our nation's security to be impenetrable in the "freedom from fear," mentality of Norman Rockwell's painting, can only imagine that my thought process must be the same as those living in the time of that event. Just like those living then, I believe there is no such thing as Pax Americana or even Pax for that matter. We aren't entirely safe. We will never be.
I do not say this statement to frighten people, rather to reason to them not to fall into the complacent safety-guaranteeing cesspool we call our mass media. It is often said that unlike the rest of the countries of the world, we as Americans have the two biggest assets that exist: the Pacific Ocean and the Atlantic Ocean. While this may have been true before, this is no longer the case and I believe that it is time for Americans to wake up out of their sugar-coated safety torpor and take on a realist perspective of the issues at hand. We are at war. We face war in the Middle East, we face war from terrorist actions, we face war in the dangerous sections of town, we face war in our own houses. We are not invulnerable and we are not at peace, but that does not mean that we can't try to strengthen ourselves to protect as many as possible. One of the ways that nation accomplish this is through the passage of legislation, and legislation is passed through arguments.
Valid arguments are a rarity in this day and age when a 14 year old can try to tell a 50 year old Russian immigrant that communism isn't bad upon reciting words from his or her textbook. Validity in arguments now is self-assured and often reliant on emotion and feeling rather than fact and actuality. Although it is near impossible to detach oneself from their emotions during a debate, one can try their best to not let their religious, emotional, or moral beliefs get in the way of rational thinking. For example, I am a homosexual and upon coming out, I asked a few of my Christian friends their reasoning for why homosexuality is sinful. They were accepting friends, but not in the least bit supportive of my "choice." Anyway, their responses were that it said so in the Bible. Now although I am not a theologian and have not the Scriptures in their entirety, I am quite sure that much of the Bible's teachings are left up to interpretations or lest we literally take Leviticus 24:16's saying that, "Whoever utters the name of the Lord must be put to death. The whole community must stone him, whether alien or native. If he utters the name, he must be put to death." Rather than answering in a manner of some sort that I could respect their thoughts on the subject, they referred to a religious book that is wholly interpreted.
Upon realizing this, another epiphany came to me. For certain arguments, there are no rational backings for a certain take on a subject. I searched my brain for a way to legitimize their beliefs, but, perhaps to bias, could not find one. Yet, I questioned some other individuals and their responses came the same, they could not find a reason besides religious, emotional or moral leanings. So it occurred to me that in order to progress forward as individuals, as a society, as a country, we must learn how to separate ourselves from our affiliations and totally rely on truly unbiased thoughts in order for us to move forward. Politicians who say that gay marriage, abortion and stem-cell research are evil and against God, fail to present any valid reasons as to why. The same goes for politicians who say that everything should be secularized, phrases such as "illegal immigrant," shouldn't be allowed to be said, and all healthcare organization should be forced to provide materials that are against their beliefs. There are no valid reasons ever presented.
A valid response is one that includes reasoning, unbiased thought process, and no small degree of thinking through all the potential outcomes of the answers.
Once we as Americans fix this differentiation of "valid arguments" and "invalid arguments," our social ecosystems will be in a much better state. And besides, arguing about moral, religious, and emotional standings is so last millennium. The Crusades, anyone heard of them?
So anyway, I refer back to my original concern, our security. The issues at hand cover each kind of war I mentioned before: literal warfare (Banning gays from the military), legislative warfare (The slew of polarizing bills), societal warfare (Intense -isms and anti-whatever groups), ideal warfare (Religious vs Atheists). Now, rationalize our thoughts, validate our arguments, and detach our "affiliated beings" from our "argumentative beings." What do we have? We would have a society respectful of all nationalities, races, sexual orientations, religions, genders, economics standings, tastes, and preferences. We would have a legislative body working on ways to improve the welfare of its country's citizens, maintain the security of the borders, and raise the standard of living. We would have a land full of the most diverse people on the planet working together and proving that America is exceptional and unlike any other place in the universe. America is and has always been great, I have no need to validate that. I say this from my "affiliated being" as a citizen of this country, a lover of its grand citizens, and an optimistic futureweaver that we must work together in order to further our greatness. I am willing. Are you?
