My friends tend to be nice.  Most live by a moral code, although the code seems relative.  My friends show diversity in color, culture, religion.  In some cases I don’t know their religious preferences.  I prefer to accept them as they portray themselves to me and the world.

I disagree with my friends on issues.  I like to ask questions of what they think about things that have a philosophical or moral underpinning.  For example, “Do you think a child has a right to an education the government offers even if the education does not offer the religious beliefs of the parents?”  or   “Are all lies equal?” or “Can the government be trusted with your personal information?” or …

I love these discussions because we don’t argue about issues.  We discuss them.  There is no expectation of a right or wrong belief or response.  We both walk away with a better look at our views.

I just read an article in THE ATLANTIC.  The author bestowed kudos on President Obama.  He cited accomplishments that individually are poor but collectively destroyed the fabric of the American engine.

I think the author wanted the fabric destroyed.  As he put it the white man cannot handle the black president.  Hello, I’m in the room.

I never saw Obama as black.  He is the president for all people.  Did I get that wrong?  Apparently.

The author went on to explain the “black experience.”  He contrasted it with the “white experience.”  Hello, I’m in the room.  I don’t know the black experience and he doesn’t know the white experience.

Part of the white experience is reading or listening to someone telling me how I grew up, how I should feel, how I should feel ashamed, how I should make amends, how I should accept the obvious will that he proclaims to be right and righteous.  Yes, I am in the room.

I never had the feelings the author described toward any color or ethnic background.  I do under this president.  There is a clear divide between white and any other, between Christian and any other, between Jew and any other, between morality and ideology, between heterosexual and homosexual.  I am in the room and it is a house divided.

The house is not divided with light showing the way but rather with discord at every point.  These points of discord are surrounded by power that gathers from fear, ignorance, entitlement and psychological traumas.

Yes, I am in the room.  Now that the president has divided the nation, the races, the ethic  and religious groups, his wife  now says she has no hope.

Well I have hope that logic and sound reason will overcome the prejudice of liberal belief and opinion.  I sit back and watch as the biased media devours itself, as the Democrat party crumbles under its weight of “correctness” that favors the few in power while it feeds off the promises to the ignorant.  Yes the ignorant who seek to find fault with the victor.  Never addressing themselves as possibly having chosen the wrong path.

I want to return to discussing issues.  I want to hear your reasoning.  I want to follow the Constitution.  I want honesty, as rough as it can be, to have meaning in our discourse.

I never left the room.  I am still in room.