Wake Up America!

Today is the 150th anniversary of President Abraham Lincoln's Gettysburg Address.  

In many ways, we have come a tremendous way since those days. And yet, according to many accounts, racial tensions are at higher levels than we’ve experienced since the 1960s. Americans killing Americans. Americans terrorizing Americans. Americans wasting precious energy tearing America apart.

Wake up, America! We can not afford to be fighting amongst ourselves.

Coincidently, (or not so coincidentally), the Cold War is alive and well in the mind and actions of Russian President Putin. In fact it’s more than alive and well – in some ways the Cold War is at even higher levels than the 1960s. The closest to the U.S. that the Russian military dared to venture back then was Cuba. Just last week, Putin announced to the world that he plans to regularly fly warplanes in the Gulf of Mexico.

You must admit, the man has impeccable strategic timing. These days, who’s going to stop him in the Gulf of Mexico or anywhere else?

Imagine for a moment the worst case scenario. What if some enemy of the U.S. made up fabricated claims about eminent domain or some other “cause” and decided to “annex” some of our Gulf of Mexico islands as their own? For instance, what if some other country took military control of South Padre Island, Texas, or a few of the Florida Keys and then threatened to take over the rest of the state?

We would need to work side by side with every American citizen we have, regardless of race, gender, sexual orientation, religious belief, ethnic background, and so on, to defeat the greatest external military incursion we’d had to face since the founding of our country.

I wonder if we’d be able to get every citizen working together, side-by-side, in certain regional pockets of our country, in certain areas of my own state or even in my own city. Thankfully, my city and state aren’t located along the coast of the Gulf of Mexico and hopefully won’t be put to the test any time soon.

I never thought I would say this, let alone write it. But in a way, I hope President Putin follows through on his threats to fly war planes over the Gulf of Mexico. Flaunt Russia’s military strength in front of us all. Give us an extremely compelling reason to unify as American citizens. Just don’t hurt anyone.

And, if you’re going to fly by, please conduct your aerial exercises soon. I’d hate for US to have already killed each other, so there’s no one left to defend our peace, if you ever decided to attack.

Wake up America!  Let’s return our energy and focus to keeping ALL Americans safe and free to pursue a life of happiness. Isn't that what being an American citizen is about in the first place?

Peace, love, and hope to all,

 Sera Macintosh

P.S. And I certainly hope that were President Putin to decide to infringe on the territory of our Gulf of Mexico neighbors instead of US, that we would NOT leave Mexico standing alone in defense of North America’s borders. Remember: United we stand. Divided we fall.