By Brad Torch

If 2020 has taught us anything, there is no such thing as impossible. It has been a year of tumult and unrest, fear and uncertainty, anger and blame. A growing pandemic is engulfing the nation, a disputed Presidential election is going to have major implications on the future of our republic, as well as the democracy we rely upon to elect our leaders. Questions about how The United States of America will successfully move forward, and how a much divided nation is going to heal itself are being asked by the same political pundits who participated in furthering the division, as well as the rest of the world. If we continue down the path we are on, nothing will change and it is “We the people” who will always pay the cost.

It is now Thanksgiving, a holiday we have always revered as a time to celebrate blessings of the past year, and while it has been a rough year most, we still have much to be thankful for. Our education has told us that Thanksgiving is based on a 1621 harvest feast shared by the Pilgrims of Plymouth and the Wampanoag people, and while this is not an accurate detail of the actual events, Thanksgiving will always be a symbol of love, family, and togetherness. In 1863, President Abraham Lincoln officially declared Thanksgiving Day, on the last Thursday of November, a national holiday, in an attempt to reconcile the country in anguish over The Civil War. I believe it is fair to compare our division today with the division that separated our country prior to, and during, The Civil War.

Over the last 12 years, we as individuals have progressively decided that our political differences outweigh our similarities. We have all ignored our personal values that we agree upon, and rather than reconcile our differences for the good of the country as a whole, we have selfishly exclaimed that one side is completely right and the other is completely wrong. I have always held the belief that all people are inherently good and regardless of our differences, we can find middle ground. This is the foundation our country was founded upon. Our government’s separation of powers was created, not only to provide checks and balances, but to find a middle ground so that no single side is right or wrong, but rather the government serves all of the people equally. If our government can’t find a middle ground and be the true leaders of our country, as we elected them to be, then it is time for the people to rise up and show them how it’s done.

With all of this in mind, I propose that it is time to make amends. For far too long, we have allowed our politicians and our media to influence our personal relationships. This is not who we are. On September 11, 2001, our country was horrifically attacked. We did not argue about the politics involved, it did not matter whether there was a Republican or Democratic president, we united as a country. We became a cohesive nation who recognized how each of our neighbors were affected by the awful events that struck our country. What happened to the compassion we showed then? What has happened to the decency and respect we used to show one another? I have always been a proud Democrat, but first, I was a proud American.

As a proud American, I am speaking to everyone, Democrats, Republicans, Independents, Trump supporters, Biden supporters, Christians, Jews, Evangelicals, and every other walk of life. I am tired of the name calling and the hypocrisy, and we are all guilty of it. If we have the ability to disagree about the types of foods we like, the type of vehicle we prefer, the way we raise our children, or the way we run our households and still be friends, then we have the ability to have differing political views and still, at the least, have common decency toward one another. No matter who our next president is or the president after that, we will all still be Americans. We can switch parties, completely ignore politics altogether, but at the end of the day, we are still all Americans. It’s well past time that we start acting like it.

Whether you are staying home this Thanksgiving or traveling to be with family, be safe, wear a mask when necessary, and take care of your loved ones. Say hi to your neighbor that you haven’t spoken with since 2016, call your family who you haven’t been able to agree with in a while, and hug your uncle, even when he says something you completely disagree with. Use this Thanksgiving as an opportunity to rebuild strained relationships and make amends with your loved ones. This is the American thing to do.

Happy Thanksgiving and God Bless!

Brad Torch is a former candidate for Amarillo City Council, Place 3