Rigid partisanship blocks ability to solve nation's ills

My husband and I are renewing our passports. While filling out the necessary paperwork, I glanced through my old passport and reread the quotes contained in it. All are thought-provoking, some are profound.

One in particular gave me pause: "The cause of freedom is not the cause of a race or a sect, a party or a class -- it is the cause of humankind, the very birthright of humanity." -- Anna Julia Cooper

Once again, America seems to be at a crossroad in her history. Once again, Americans are deeply divided; all groups believing passionately that their way in the only way. Each group is unwilling to bend, much less compromise.

Such division, such mistrust, such rigidity can only lead to disaster for all Americans. This dangerous impasse makes me fear for the wellbeing of future generations of Americans, for the country itself.

What has happened to Americans' ability to work together, to compromise if necessary to reach goals or solutions? When need be, Americans could usually come together for the greater good. Have we lost the ability, the will to do so now? Are our own/group agendas worth compromising the integrity of this great nation ... and our own personal freedoms?

I am hard pressed to believe that any group is willing to throw away all that has made America mighty just to get its own way without consideration for all Americans. The price of such rigidity is simply too high.

We may not always agree -- and obviously we sometimes will violently disagree on the best path to take. I refused to believe, however, that any American would willingly choose to compromise the rights of any other American just to be right!

If America ever needed God's blessing, it is surely now!

Margaret D. Burnette

Bradenton

This story was originally published January 15, 2016 at 12:00 AM with the headline "Rigid partisanship blocks ability to solve nation's ills ."