A More Perfect Union

The Constitution of our nation was intended to design a form of government that would nurture in time a “perfect union” free of tyranny and persecution. It is written in plain English that within our democracy that all citizens would be treated equal under law. What is haunting us now over 200 years later is what President Obama described as our country’s “original sin” of not initially heeding those words. While we make strides everyday towards a perfect union, the fact that we had nurtured separatism for so long is the reason we still have racial resentment today.

At the core of resentment and anger on both sides of the racial divide are fear and worry. There are major problems within this country that aren’t strictly race-related yet it always seems to be at the end of the discussion. The black community harbors the resentment of being second-class citizens pretty much under law up until some fifty years ago with the ramifications still being felt in their communities today. The white community feels persecuted for sins they personally haven’t committed while they watch their jobs get outsourced and the separation between rich and poor grow rapidly. Everyone would appear to be in the same boat when it comes to fearing for the security of their livelihood and for the country as a whole and that is why it is counterproductive to turn our anger towards something as simple as race.

We are all in this together. In order for the dream of a perfect union to be realized we must become a trans-racial society that doesn’t see race as the problem. As I implied earlier, Jim Crow laws and segregation were only a half a century ago. That means generations alive today witnessed and lived through something so blatantly Unconstitutional. Part of bringing about a perfect union is the time and generations it takes to heal such wounds. We need to come to a point where instead of fighting against each other we fight with each other as Americans regardless of race, color, or creed.