Card Carrying Member of Humanity

what i want to know is this, people: what does conservation awareness, healthcare, education and gun control really have to do with party politics? do we not all want great schools for our kids where teachers actually teach, not teach to a test? do any of us want to lose everything we worked so hard for to outrageous medical bills? do any of us really think that allowing semi-automatic weapons in urban areas where their sole purpose is to be used by humans to kill humans, is a good thing? (we're not talking hunting rifles, here folks.) when we dig down, do we honestly believe that some prisoners don't deserve a trial based on our own deeply embedded ideas of racism or fear? what if our country were occupied by a foreign army and they started rounding up our men and women in uniform without a fair trial? do we not all want justice of some sort? no, i am not a blind utopian, i know we all have differences and on these issues they are the most prominent, but, i do believe that in order to make progress as a nation, as a world, we must start looking at the knee jerk responses we have and begin moving beyond. our prez had a knee jerk reaction when he criticized an officer for doing his job and it birthed a beautiful moment of apology and redemption in the form of a beer summit. i like that. we are all fallible, we will always disagree, but let us not forget that we are not defined by our labels, we do not have to think within the box that we built around ourselves, or feel pride in the stereotypes that are perpetuated about us as though it is some badge of courage. after all, as i've seen on the back of muddied trucks, some cowboys do indeed love mozart. and i like that, too.