Thousands sign petitions to secede from the UNITED States? Really?

This was originally going to be a facebook post, but I think I am going to make a concerted effort to keep my more long-winded posts off there.  Instead I'll try to post my thoughts here, more thoroughly and then include a link or two, maybe three on facebook. So here goes.

This specific picture was posted on Facebook by a family member, and though it may appear to be extreme, I wouldn't doubt that it might have a ring of truth. I'm going to do something a little bit different this time. Instead of just posting my very long post in text for you to read, I am going to make a video that will include everything I am writing below this paragraph. The video is to address the context of this specific picture, not others similar to it. Hopefully video will be easier and less time consuming for those of us who don't care to read that much. Plus, I think you can get more from seeing and hearing what I am trying to convey, than what comes across in just text. Be forewarned, I am not a great reader, and stumble on my words and thoughts occasionally. I also can get emotional about things that are very important to me. I may need to pause at times to compose myself. 

Here is my video post of the text below: I have edited it to remove some pauses and verbal diarrhea. Please do not make rude comments about my facial appearance.  The nerves on one side of face do not work well because of a previous head injury. 

Let's first set aside the fact that this is coming straight from FOX News, and by all my accounts is far from being unbiased. Let's also set aside the fact that thousands of Americans is far from being a large portion of the more than 314 million Americans in population in the UNITED STATES of AMERICA. Now let's move on to my thoughts concerning this and the ever seeming separation of the old "Red state" "Blue state" Americans.

In my Opinion, some of our country has been going this way for years. They (being primarily Republican conservatives vs. Democrat liberals) don't agree with the other side on many issues. So rather than trying to work with them and compromise for the good of our country they continue to push the other-half away, demonize any other views, and alienate half the country. (This is an observation of generalization by the way, and does not apply to everyone.)

As bad as many seem to accuse president Obama of being, I guarantee many of us from the other side of this spectrum felt complete anxiety and maybe even terror at the direction our country was going under the second Bush (I say many of us, not all, and maybe not even most, but I do wonder). This was a heavy weight and burden on our conscience especially after Bush II was reelected. For people that hold toward liberal views (which are not bad, unchristian, or evil, just different than conservative), many of the things that were happening and being pushed by the Bush ADMINISTRATION seemed like they were being pushed through with no opposition, and all Republicans walked lock step with every decision, while some Democrats followed, either because they leaned conservative, were afraid to push away conservative voters, or because they chose to compromise (something the other side seems to see as disloyal breaking of ranks and tradition, on their side). I know I felt like his policies were terrible for our country, our economy, our people, and our soldiers. Yet if anyone or any groups made any attempt to speak out on anything, they were mislabeled as un-American, un-Christian, Evil, and dismissed as extremists. Massive changes were pushed through, with no struggle, because the side with so much power at the time could get away with it. In the end, the two major wars of that time seemed to go on with no hope of ending, assault weapons ban was ignored so it would lapse knowing that conservatives wouldn't dare cross the NRA, economy took a free-fall that did not slow until well into the next term after Bush was gone, personal freedoms and security of those freedoms massively deteriorated (in the name of security),  the rich grew ever richer while the middle class were told it would help them (yet it did the opposite), we were all given a tax credit in return found incredible hikes in prices, rates, and fees of almost everything (which far outpaced any rise in income. {Yeah right, rise in income, what a joke!}) Even with all the tragedy that seemed to befall our country during the Bush years, somehow we still made it out as a country, divided but still a country. You can say that Obama is destroying our country, but as far as I can tell, we have been destroying and dividing our country for decades. Conservatives are pissed off about a healthcare plan and that the economy hasn’t bounced back as much as our “hope and change” idealism had hoped.  Sorry, but that does not hold a candle to the massive issues that liberals felt were weighted on our countries shoulders, during the “fun times” of the Bush II administration. Which we felt, was every bit as horrendous as conservatives feel Obama has been, for our country. I personally hate that people try to dismiss our anger and frustration with the Bush administration, simply because they say it is in the past. Well that past, has continued to influence the negative direction of this country, and we certainly should not ignore it, and brush it aside, just because this is a different administration and a different time. We have every right to look at history in order to try to learn from our past mistakes, and improve our countries future.

Conservatives seem to attach their entire political views on a very small handful of issues. In this current case, the big ones seem to be the healthcare policy enacted by the Obama administration, a false premise that they will lose gun rights, and the never-ending view that lax moral laws (i.e. homosexual issues, abortion, birth control, corporal punishment, and use of the Christian religion in public) are deteriorating our country and society. I do not see democrats as being so nearsighted and one sided, but I am a democrat and certainly have my own bias. I feel like we try to consider many issues when we decide our political views. I hear so many conservatives make claims to the effect of, we are "just drinking the kool-aid", repeating democratic talking points, falling victim to political pandering, uneducated, ignorant, do no research, just don't get it, etc., etc., etc. Yet, that is almost the exact perception some of us have of many conservatives. In reality these claims do absolutely nothing to address the real issues, and the often real, valid, differences in opinion, values, perception, and views of what the differing sides hold. We tend to hold any hope of compromise or tying to understand our differing views hostage, by instead focusing on and attacking the claims I listed above. I will say that they are not important and not the real issue, though they may have some importance, and brake down any real attempt at compromise, they do not get to the real issues, they don't address the roots of our problems or differences. 

So as long as we work so hard to fight against each other, push so adamantly to demonize each-other refuse to really listen to our grievances and concerns on ALL sides (Not just these two major parties!), refuse to compromise or work together, and continue to address the claims I discussed above without working at our root problems and disagreements, this partisan divide will continue. This divide could become more prevalent, more extreme, and maybe even more persistent. Those thousands signing this horrible petition, could become millions, and this country that is so divided by ideology could become far more divided physically. Would seceding from the UNITED STATES of AMERICA help? I do not see this as any kind of help for any true American. It flies in the face of all our forefathers ever stood for and fought for in America! We are the UNITED STATES of America, and if we truly want to help or fix any of these real problems in our country, we need to work really hard on trying not to be the DIVIDED STATES of America. Instead, we need to be working together to improve our country, understand our reaching and diverse views (which are nothing new by the way.) and trying to address real issues, real root differences without jumping to demonizing tactics that do nothing to fix anything. We need to heal this country, and we cannot do it by going our separate ways, dismissing each side’s views, and shutting down when things don't go our way. I love my country, and so does every other democrat, republican, independent, religious, non religious, liberal, conservative, moderate, loving  hating, caring, and non caring American in this country. We are a very diverse country, with very diverse views, and we need to stop being so afraid of diversity. It is not a bad word, or a bad thing, until we make it one, and it is a beautiful thing that makes our country amazing, so amazing that countries around the world have looked up to our system, to our ways, and our countries basic characteristics as an example to emulate and reach for something better. We seem to be falling from those very characteristics that others have tried and succeeded in bringing to their own countries. In falling from who and what we were, we are also falling in prestige, opinion, power, education, and healthcare, sliding in ratings in may areas because we have disconnected ourselves from each-other, and told ourselves that "we" are right and "they" are wrong. Rather than being the United States of America, we are pushing ever harder to become the Divided states of what once was America.

This is NOT what I want for OUR country, and I hope it is not what you want for our country. If not, we have got to try harder to look past our petty differences, and work on understanding our real “BIG” differences, while trying to come up with win-win choices most of us can agree on, and working to compromise on some of those things we cannot seem to agree on. I personally would prefer to set aside any issue that we cannot come to any real agreement on, while only pushing hard on things we CAN come to an agreement on. That is not realistic though, and some of the issues we cannot agree on, will still need to be worked on, eventually. Nevertheless, wouldn’t it be nice to work primarily on things we can agree on, instead of focusing so hard on only the things, which we can’t seem to agree? I think that could be a very healing and refreshing process to follow most of the time.