American's can not handle the truth

  In a July 2009 article in "Food and Wine" magazine, one writer conducted an experiment that he believed would essentially solve the debate of when to salt your meat. I  know it sounds funny, but in the cooking world there are not many things debated so heatedly. In fact, it is such a contentious issue that you can divide most respected chefs into two categories. Those who believe in seasoning your meat the day before and those who believe in doing it right before cooking. Feelings on the issue are so strong, that the author alluded to the controversy as being almost ideological.

    In his experiment the author, who himself was a 'salt the day before kind of a guy,' readied himself for either confirmation or the devastating news...that he could be wrong. His results, however, were very surprising. He found out, that there was more than one truth to the debate. While chicken and lamb needed to be salted the day before, beef and pork should be salted right before cooking. Therefore, in this ideological spat of when to salt, both sides were indeed correct. I know. You want to think this is an anomaly. How can both be right? We are in America for God's sake...there is only one truth.  

    Does this at all sound familiar? As more and more Americans draw their line, sign up under who they feel is right, and choose their battle leader we are getting further and further away from actually understanding the idea that there might be more than one truth. Why are we doing this and why does it seem to be getting worse? (Insert a political opportunists name here)

    I remember as a kid that nobody really knew where others stood politically, unless at some union hall or church. Now everybody is declaring where they stand, almost like we are preparing for some final battle. We are openly criticizing our friends, family, and neighbors desperately hoping that we are the ones who are right. But, then what happens next. The last time in America we declared sides so fast and rigidly was during the civil war. For what? I hope we certainly do not want one political party leading the country. That my fellow citizens is not democracy, it is totalitarianism. I get it, people are hurting and struggling to get by, but is that an excuse to want to be right so badly that you are willing to hurt your communities and families? This political competition is going to far, the fact that it is already a competition proves that.

    The story above is proof that in many circumstances there is more than one truth. In our political system there is more than one truth, and there always will be. We are a democracy after all, and designed to be that way. So why can we not reconcile our ideas, values, and beliefs with other ideas, values, and beliefs? Why are we drawing lines in the sand when we need to be pulling each other up instead of continuing to tear each other down. Do some of us honestly believe that politicians of the other ilk really want bad things for our country? I am heartbroken and confused as to why anybody, even a minority group would do this. Not to mention we are becoming a self-fulfilling prophecy, we are tying the hands and attacking the only entity that can and will help us, our own government Republicans, Democrats, and Independents. We have no idea what we want. Americans are like over-tired toddler. Too tired to sleep, to hungry to eat, and too thirsty too drink. We are now willing to, as my mother used to say, cut off our nose just to spite our faces.

      Thousands of people have died in Libya in 2011 just to get a taste of what we have. What do we do? Well we are patiently waiting to tell our friends, family, and neighbors, "I told you so! HAHAHA! you were wrong!" Like it or not, we are a democracy, we have a constitution written in 1787 that trumps states rights, we have the federalist papers explaining why. Still there is no way we can ever properly convey or interpret what our founding fathers wanted or meant. But this, my friends is not it. They what did they fight for? What we can do is realize that there is more than one truth, more than one solution, more than one idea. Only by working together can we get out of the mess we are in. We can do the best we can to get by, alone and fail or together and succeed. I prefer we do this together.