TRIBALISM IS IN OUR DNA

TRIBALISM IS IN OUR DNA

I grew up in a farming community in South-Central Pennsylvania dominated by four distinct tribes of people. These tribes were mostly defined by their religious beliefs and the church they attended. Some of them also differed in dress and farming methods, but all were Protestant and of the same race ("white").  The first 18 years of my life were spent in this agriculturally centered community.

The Merriam-Webster Dictionary defines a tribe as "a group of persons having a common character, occupation or interest." By that definition the 4 groups I grew up with could definitely be defined as tribes.

The four included the Old-Order Amish, the Mennonites, the Lutherans and the Presbyterians. I began school in the Fall of 1945 by attending the local one-room school. Concord School was my school home for 5 out of my first 6 years of public education. I was the only kid in first grade and my classmates in this 8 grades classroom included Amish, Mennonites, Lutherans and Presbyterians (I was Presbyterian) and we were taught by a Mennonite teacher. School was the ONLY place where the four tribes actually spent much time together. In school we studied together, visited together, and played games together; but once we left school grounds, we went back to the tribe.  The Amish to their horse and buggy, no electricity and German language; the Mennonites to their plain clothes, white bonnets and black cars; the Lutheran and Presbyterians back to their "English ways" of cars, electricity and tractors.

Anyone who visits a large city on this planet can readily observe that Homo sapiens are tribal.  We collect with people of a similar religion, language, culture, ethnicity, race, etc., because we are more comfortable around "people like us".

This United States is an amalgamation of hundreds of tribes from around the world.  From our beginnings in the 1600's to the twenty-first century, this land has been and continues to be a beacon of opportunity.  My ancestors came to America in the 1700's from Scotland and Germany and along with many others, helped settle what was then known as the frontier in central Pennsylvania. Because this land was so vast, and the opportunities so great, people from all over the world have come here. Today, no other country in the world has the wide diversity of humans that we do.  

For thousands of years the tribe has been our identity.  We were Christian, we were Jewish, we were Muslim, we were Hindu,
we were African, we were English, we were Japanese, we were Indian and it is a very long list. In the USA of today we are struggling with how we can all be identified as Americans. 

It is a work in progress. We are being tested like never before. The challenge we face is---can we retain the values and culture we cherish as a tribe and still be Americans? Can a nation with such wide diversity survive and prosper in the twenty-first century, or is the effort going to be abandoned as just too hard?  Our children and grandchildren will grade us on our success or failure.

The United States is in political turmoil because our current leadership in Washington does NOT recognize that all who live here, are AMERICANS. President Trump is doing everything he can to create chaos among our wide variety of peoples, because he seems to enjoy seeing people fight and he thinks it is to his political advantage. Sadly, he lacks the capacity to appreciate the wide diversity that is America today.

The Know-Nothings (GOP) who are currently running the country have no vision for the future, so they need to be defeated and replaced with people who are forward looking and are willing to work toward a brighter future for generations still to come.

Donald J. Trump looks at a picture of America and sees ONLY HIMSELF. 

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