mcgee goes to Washington!

So.

Politics and religion.
Don't go there.
I know.
But here's the thing...

I finally took a trip to our nation's amazing capital! I have been wanting to go since my parents decided it was not in our family's core values to send an 8th grader with random kids and chaperones on a school sanctioned trip to Washington D.C. Not a fan at the decision at the time. And by the way mom, I did take a picture of happy eight grade students just to show you that EVERYONE is doing it. I'll email it to ya.

White House?
Eh.
It was cool but it's a house.

Then we got to the mall.
Not the Nordstrom kinda mall.
The National Mall.

Ahhhhhhhhhh...
What a cool experience.
Which leads me to talk about politics.
Sorta.

It doesn't matter which party I affiliate lean towards.
It doesn't matter which way I vote.
It does matter that I'm a human being and I want a better world to live in.

As we were at the Lincoln Memorial I was reading his second inaugural speech engraved into the wall and this jumped right out at me:

"While the inaugeral address was being delivered from this place, devoted altogether to saving the Union without war, insurgent agents were in the city seeking to destroy it without war—seeking to dissole the Union, and divide effects, by negotiation. Both parties deprecated war; but one of them would make war rather than let the nation survive; and the other would accept war rather than let it perish. And the war came...

...Neither party expected for the war, the magnitude, or the duration, which it has already attained. Neither anticipated that the cause of the conflict might cease with, or even before, the conflict itself should cease. Each looked for an easier triumph, and a result less fundamental and astounding. Both read the same Bible, and pray to the same God; and each invokes His aid against the other. It may seem strange that any men should dare to ask a just God's assistance in wringing their bread from the sweat of other men's faces; but let us judge not that we be not judged. The prayers of both could not be answered; that of neither has been answered fully. The Almighty has his own purposes."

I sat there for a moment feeling so disappointed. Are we really there again? Are we really willing, as a nation, to remain so divided? Did we not learn anything from the past? What would Abraham Lincoln think if he stood in the halls of Congress today? I can't help but think he would be discouraged.

I see two political parties that both pray to the same God and invoke His aid against the other.  How strange is that?

I fear what the division will mean for me as a citizen.
For my children.
For our nation.

What I do know is that I pray that we will come to the table to be strong together and not just right in our own minds and in our own social circles. I know I will look at issues and how they affect human beings and not party lines. I know that I would never want to be a politician because it's harder than most of us give credit for but because of that I will pray that they open their minds on both sides and find solutions for our people, all of us, no matter what we believe or how we vote.

I generally stay away from politics in a public forum but it was so impactful that I couldn't leave it alone. So thanks for humoring me, hope it moves you to at least stop and think-I would love to hear your thoughts.

Because maybe it's just me.
Maybe I'm wrong.

But I doubt it.

-McGee

And if you would like to read President Lincoln's speech in all it's complete glory you can find it here.