The people in the USA spend incalculable amounts of energy hating others who we perceive as "different" from ourselves. We are in an arms race against ourselves. We defend our entrenched positions like children who put their fingers in their ears and holler "la la la la la" so they can't hear their opponents. And now many many of us are armed, walking around with emotional and political "hair triggers."
We need to take a "time out". We need to come together respectfully and peaceably, to listen to each other's hard truths. We need to re-dedicate ourselves to our forgotten pledge: "one nation, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all." We need to do this soon. And we need to do it without quoting some scripture that not everyone believes.