America Strong: standing together in a world of adversity.

There is an attitude that permeates our culture these days. I know you've felt it, it's impossible to ignore.

It's "me first" and "winning is everything" with a strong dose of "make the money now, worry about the consequences later" tossed in for good measure.

Few people seem to care about others. The time-honored American values of acceptance and cooperation seem to have fallen out of favor. They seem to have been replaced by excessive greed and deception as acceptable leadership styles in both local and national politics and in especially in business.

I'm not so naive as to think that 'everyone' ever believed in doing the right thing. But there have been periods in our national history where 'doing the right thing' was the prevailing attitude. I believe it correlated with times of extreme pressure, like World War I and World War II for example.

It's a well-known fact that nothing binds disparate people together like adversity. It's related to the idea that "a common enemy makes friends of strangers". People cooperate with others because it's mutually beneficial to do so. Doing what is good for everyone is very tightly connected to the definition of "right" and "honorable". Selfishness and greed have normally been closely tied to the concept of "evil". That seems to have changed.

People who care about being in leadership roles learn that fear is the strongest motivator of people. They learn that if you want to bind people together and get them to follow you, show them an enemy, a problem and tell them you will solve it. This is a core strategy of political campaigning. We all know that.

For America to stand in this new world, we have to stop allowing would-be leaders to make enemies of our neighbors. If we continue to let people divide American against American, it will only weaken the nation. In the end everyone pays the price.

Dividing our citizens into 'us' and 'them' does nothing for America. It only helps people get elected to office, or make a bunch of money on streaming channels. Is that really what we need? I think not.

We need political candidates who bring Americans together if we are going to survive the coming years. The world climate is changing, and I'm not just talking about the temperature outside.

Those who divide us do not deserve us. I don't care what party they belong to. Don't be suckered into following someone just because they are on TV or the Internet or because they draw large crowds.

Use your own brain, and make an effort to create a nation where fellow Americans value each other.

That would really be a Thing That Works!.