A nonprofit publication of the Kentucky Center for Public Service Journalism

Letter to the editor: Aaron Gillum reminds us that a nation is not a leader or symbols — but the people


A nation is not her leader.

A nation is not her laws, her monuments, or her symbols.

A nation is her people.

Her people are not a color. They are not a language. They are not a religion; not an ideal.

A nation endures the sins of her forbearers. She is the pride of her finest sons and daughters, in spite of her weakest.

A nation’s timeless beauty stems from her unity.

She knows her demise is in division.

If we cannot, from the comfort of our past-times on days of rest, see the greatness and beauty of our unity, putting aside whatever may divide us, to pause but for a moment to honor our enduring love and respect of each other in spite of the obstacles that lay before us, then we are lost.

A protest of this unity is not symbolic of a greater cause; no cause can be greater than US.

It is a selfish, infantile expression that the individual believes they are greater acting alone, actively refuting unity with malicious intent. It is a fallacy of the highest consequence; failed programming of a generation unable to deal constructively with conflict.

You.

Yes, YOU.

You’re not protesting anything; you’re being a spoiled, selfish asshole. I don’t agree with you, but this isn’t about you and me. It’s not about any of us; it’s about ALL of US.

We love you.

And we desperately need your passion in our unity.

Not unity in support of a leader, or a law, or a monument, or a symbol, or a color, or a gender, or an ideal; unity in respect that we stand united despite our oppositions. Unity that our nation is greater than any unsolved argument.

Waste not your passion on misguided dissent.

Stand with us. Rise with us. Walk with us.

We’ll figure this out. We ALWAYS do.

Because it’s US; which means it’s ALL of us.

Aaron Gillum
Florence


Related Posts

Leave a Comment