The Kind-Hearted Smart Aleck

  I’ve long asked the questions, “Why is our nation so divided?” and “When did it start?” I’ve heard some on the left point fingers at right-wing talk radio, Fox News, and Donald Trump. Similarly, I’ve heard some on the right blame social media, identity politics, and Barack Obama. While I personally feel as though talk radio, networks like Fox, Donald Trump, social media, and perhaps to a lesser extent, identity politics, have exacerbated the divide in recent years, this is not where it started. As a matter of fact, the divide started long before – approximately 150 years ago. While technically the Union may have defeated the Confederacy, the Civil War never truly ended.   It’s been said that African-Americans were freed from slavery at the conclusion of the Civil War, but this isn’t entirely true. In the decades, generations, even centuries that followed, black Americans have had to fight for voting rights; employment opportunities; even being allowed in the same public ...