The Enemy Within

America just marked 20 years since the attacks on 9/11. We memorialized the 2,977 citizens who lost their lives in New York, the Pentagon, and in a field in Shanksville, PA. Many of whom died as heroes trying to save their fellow citizens.

Something struck me as I watched the memorial services. Our ability to come together when an attack comes from outside our borders is amazing. Whether it is a strike from Japan that decimates our Pacific naval forces, a nuclear threat only 1,500 miles from our shores by the Soviet Union, or terrorists who kill our citizens and attack our institutions, we rise to the challenge. We unite. We fight.

But when the threat comes from within, that is a different story. The battle lines are drawn between right and left, and the only battle we fight is against each other.

When a virus kills over 600,000 Americans, we turn vaccines and safety measures into political statements. When an election does not go our way and we are lied to by pundits and politicians whose only goal is to maintain power at any cost, we turn on our own police. We attack and vandalize institutions we claim to hold sacred. 

When minority groups attempt to level the playing field by asking for equal rights, we don't wish to understand. We believe those who tell us that by these citizens gaining ground, the rest of us will somehow lose our own rights in the bargain.  

When our family, friends, and neighbors have political opinions that differ from ours, rather than listen and attempt to find common ground, we label them as Traitors. Unpatriotic. Communists. The Enemy.

What do you think this says to those who wish us harm? To the Vladamir Putins, the Kim Jong Uns, the Bashar al-Assads, or the Osama bin Ladens of the world?

It tells them they do not need guns and bombs. They do not need armies. They do not need hijacked airplanes to attack America.

A virus released into the air or water means a large percentage of the country will refuse to take safety measures to prevent an outbreak, and most of those will believe it is a hoax or a political move by the opposing party, so why take it seriously? Then they will proceed to willingly spread a potentially deadly pathogen.

A carefully orchestrated disinformation campaign against an election, a government leader, a political party, or a minority group--regardless of how bizarre or erroneous--will mean that a percentage of Americans will not only believe it is true because it reflects their own biases but will also happily spread your lies for you. 

These same individuals will simply refuse to accept the decisions of government leaders, laws or court rulings they do not like, or election results. And they will take matters into their own hands. Violently if necessary.

Why would our enemies need to attack us when we are so willing to do the work for them? They can simply pull a few strings and watch as America implodes. Then strike once we have sufficiently weakened ourselves.

Right now you are probably feeling one of two things. You feel helpless because of the climate many of our so-called "leaders" and political pundits have created. But we are not helpless.

We can vote the politicians out of office who willingly deceive, and who put their own self-interest and megalomania ahead of those of the citizens of the United States of America. 

We can unite against deceit and misinformation. We can call out those who spread conspiracy theories as facts. We can label them as the lies they are, not dismiss them as "alternative facts." 

We can get our news and information from only websites and media outlets that are rated as credible on sites like mediabiasfactcheck.org, and stop spreading the "facts" created by Russia, North Korea, Yemen, and China.

Most importantly, we can stop wholeheartedly believing in the narrative that only fits our own biases or our personal agendas. We can take responsibility for what we circulate, and make sure we are not spreading half-truths and "facts" that are cherry-picked and manipulated before we pass them along.

As for the rest of you, you are probably angry. Not at the picture of the dangerous divisions I paint, but at me personally for daring to define them and point fingers at those you wholeheartedly support and believe. But I would ask you, at whom are you REALLY angry? Sometimes, the truth hurts.

Because unquestioning belief in anyone or anything is dangerous. When we place all of our trust and faith in these individuals and belief systems, we deliberately put on blinders.

True patriotism is not blind. It is standing up for your country when it is right and standing against it when it is wrong. And when manipulation and lies are needed to preserve the status quo, America is most definitely heading in the wrong direction.

Our blind biases cause us to see each other not as fellow citizens, but as the “other” who deserve to be treated as less than Americans, or worse, less than human. Undeserving of compassion and understanding. Whose very existence needs to be marginalized, or disposed of completely.

As former White House Chief of Staff John Kelly said after the attack on the Capitol on January 6th: "We need to look infinitely harder at who we elect to any office in our land — at the office seeker’s character, at their morals, at their ethical record, their integrity, their honesty, their flaws, what they have said about women, and minorities, why they are seeking office in the first place, and only then consider the policies they espouse.” 

Additionally, we need to take a hard look at ourselves and ask, "Why?" Why does an enemy that is real in a physical sense means we unite, but one that is less than tangible means we turn on each other?

We have proven time and time again we can rise together. What remains to be seen is how we may fall apart together.

America stands at a crossroads. Which path you take, which path we all take, could make the difference between an America that lives up to the phrase "liberty and justice for all," or one that, piece by piece, destroys herself from within. Choose wisely.