Dear USA,

You were conceived and safely delivered into the world 246 years ago with the highest of hopes that a republic had been born that would last for eternity, as Franklin said if we can keep it.  You were nearly lost between 1861 and 1865 when 620,000 men died trying to keep you together and tear you apart.

Since then, you have given hope to many and taken away hope from others because every hatred and misstep you ever took remains in our collective psyche to haunt us and divide us and cause the meanspirited amongst us to keep trying to tear us apart. Some say you are in the middle of a “cold civil war,” the heat of which is seen in our cities at night.

Many of us think you are on the cusp of losing your way and that we’ll fall into limbo if the disparate voices aren’t willing to pull back a little from their most extreme beliefs and find a common ground.  We need that common ground for, as Lincoln said, “A house divided against itself cannot stand.” At present, your people are very much divided.

Quite likely, I’m naïve and still believe you will long endure. I still believe there’s a chance for you, even now.

—Malcolm