There is plenty of partisan politics in the United States today, but America is hardly a battlefield. The farthest one could go using the armed conflict comparison is that America is experiencing a domestic Cold War with all the attendant spying, duplicity and secrecy.
I
disagree with Mr. Baldwin’s idea that America is in another “Civil
War,” but I also disagree with Mr. Butcher’s contention that “placid
homogeneity”characterizes the political era.
I am very happy we are not experiencing the horrors of a civil war. Thankfully,
the atrocities committed by the Bush administration in the name of Democracy
and Freedom have not yet become the rule in this country.
The Disappeared may yet become a reality for us, but it hasn’t yet. I
am also happy that a tremendous number of Americans continue to oppose Bush’s
policies, albeit nonviolently and without proper media coverage.
I don’t want to have to fight for my rights. I would rather simply exercise
them. Abraham Lincoln said that the country would have to pay in blood for the
sin of slavery.
Let’s hope the Creator of our world is not so bloody minded and we will
be able to expiate the crimes of imperialism, consumerism and hubris with apologies
and reparations. Let us not hope to defeat the enemy by becoming the enemy.
I agree with both commentators that there is something terribly wrong in America
today. So I urge you to exercise your rights before they are lost.
I
disagree with Mr. Baldwin’s idea that America is in another “Civil
War,” but I also disagree with Mr. Butcher’s contention that “placid
homogeneity”characterizes the political era. 
