What's Wrong In America?

You know what our problem is in the United States? It's not welfare programs. It's not the rich. It's not the poor. It's not class warfare. It's not the Democrats, Republicans, right wingers, left wingers, Obama, Congress, or any of those things.
The problem is the media. The media works tirelessly to divide us and keep us at each others throats because the heated debates and fancy talking points get good ratings, but none of it is real.
The problem is that we spend too much time listening to the people on TV and on the big radio networks. We spend too much time listening to what Sean Hannity or Chris Matthews has to say.
And while we're spending all of our time listening to them, we're not listening to each other. We're tuned in to the TV and the radio and we're not tuned in with the members of our communities. We're disconnected from the people around us.
Things would be so much better if we would just turn the TV off and listen to the people in our own community. Get to know that single mom working at the McDonald's down the street and get to know that software engineer working at Microsoft.
Get to know that Mormon family across the street and that Atheist next door.
Just go talk to them. Learn something about them and drop the labels. They are more than what labels you attach to them. They are a human beings.
The truth is that media does not inform, it disconnects us from each other. We close ourselves off to people who are a little bit different than us. What harm would it do a religious person that sincerely believes in God to just go talk to and maybe befriend an Atheist, and vise versa?
We listen to these people on the TV who continuously close our minds and our hearts by narrowing our world views. Is that any way to live? Is that any way to see life? Through that narrow lens and whatever is outside of that is wrong and must be evil?
I'm not saying you have to change a person's mind or let someone change yours. We're all different from each other in the most superficial ways, but we're the same in ways that truly matter. Why not learn more about the way a person thinks and try to understand why they think that way?
It is my belief that most of the things we think our wrong in this country are more like symptoms of our social disconnect.
Someone hates Muslims? Well, you can probably trace that back to what a man on TV said. You are pissed off at conservatives? You probably watched too much TV last night. Simple as that.
The real enemy is mainstream media and its talking heads. Turn the TV off. Go talk to a stranger at the grocery store or visit your neighbor's church, regardless of your religious affiliation. Just put your world view on hold a few times during the week and just talk to someone human to human rather than Liberal to Conservative or Christian to Atheist. All of that stuff is superficial.