This country needs a divorce....

[Douglas Carpenter]

62. North American People are a common people bonded by a commonness whether we like it or not

Whatever deliberate or accident of history brought it about there exist today a North American people who share a commonness that is apparent to the entire world and even more obviously so to ourselves when we leave our shores. Just as British people, German people, French people and numerous others share a commonness in spite of centuries of even far great political divides and catastrophic civil wars and centuries of class divisions, ethnic, religious and regional divisions and divisions based on massively far greater divides of political ideology.

As hard as it may be to put one’s finger on exactly what it is – North Americans regardless or region, religion or lack thereof, ethnicity or political ideology share something in common that identifies us with each other and as well as to the whole world. This hard to define bond of commonness is recognizable to everyone regardless from whatever part or region of North America we hale. It mysteriously crosses bonds from the riches to the poorest, from the most educated to the most ignorant and even from the most rabidly right-wing to the most dogmatically left-wing. On some plane we are in spite of efforts to the contrary to divide us – we still remain E pluribus unum – whether we like it or not.