No one can deny that, as I write this, the United States of America is greatly divided. There is a lot of debate about when and how it started, but the fact is that it has been happening for a very long time. We are at a bad place right now.

No matter the topic, you can watch conservatives, liberals, and libertarians fighting each other. We'll vote for and cheer for whatever, as long as the other side doesn't like it. Any small victory gets rubbed in the face of the other side. Any perceived victory is flaunted equally. 

Yes, we are currently watching what I believe is a silent coup in our government. Those who voted for anyone but Trump cannot get over the fact that he won, and the fact that he didn't take the popular vote is prompting even more fights than usual.

But what I want to talk about is the American people themselves.

I read comments. On blog posts, videos, Facebook, any news source that allows article comments, etc. I am equally fed up with the comments from both sides of the isle.

This isn't a football game, where we crap talk the fans of the other team. But that is exactly how a good deal of people are acting. And they'll stand for anything to get another hit on the other side.

We're not enemies, guys. We're all US citizens here. We're supposed to be cheering for the same team, remember? We're all waving the same flag and wearing red, white, and blue body paint in the stands!

Why can't we come together on something? Why can't we have friendly conversations and debates that don't deteriorate into name calling? Does anyone else remember when the first person to bring up Nazis immediately lost the debate? That doesn't seem to be the case anymore, and to listen to folks, there are a lot of Nazis in the USA.

I have long held that I think people vote for and cheer for things simply because they want to complain about it and fight people over it. I believe people do this, and I'm not sure why. Then, in the next breath, they are crying about our country being so divided.

Well, if you want the divide in this country to close, stop dividing us.

Look, I'm one of those people who liberals think is too conservative and conservatives think is too liberal, and the libertarians look at sideways. I think everyone is insane! But the point is, I can debate people without calling them names. I can see the other point of view, even if it doesn't sway my own opinion. I've grabbed people online who attacked my views and forced them away from name calling and into standing behind their beliefs in friendly debate. I've looked extremists on both sides in the eye and walked away with a smile and a handshake and no ill feelings from either party.

I didn't support Pres. Obama. But when he did something right, I said so. When people made threats, I defended him. I tried to give him the benefit of the doubt. But we, as a nation, are moving further and further away from that. I listen to the left beg for Trump to be impeached, even though it would not remove him from office (and if they did remove him, Pence would be president). I've heard the right threaten civil war, which is actually pretty funny because I have no faith the people of my generation would do that even if we were taken over by communists.

The point is...

And I'm not your enemy.

You are my fellow countrymen. I might hate what you believe, and you might hate what I believe. But somehow, we need to stop fighting each other, because we are not each other's enemy. We need to stand together, debate, come up with new ideas, and fix our country. And our country isn't going to get fixed if we continue to treat it like a football game.

I'm guilty, too. So from here out... I'm not going to make fun of liberals anymore. I'm done. I'm not going to play that game any longer. I expect that same respect in return, and will tell you when it comes. I'm not fighting my own countrymen any longer. It's not working for either of us. So let's stop. I want to fix my country. I want to be free. And I know our ideas of "free" are going to be different. But I'm not going to allow you to be my enemy anymore. I am tired of the hatred and the fighting. So yeah, I'm going to start being what I want to see. Care to join me?

So apparently, the Republicans are eating their own now. I'm sorry, but I've been passively watching this since it began. I don't watch "The View," but any time a conservative, Republican, Libertarian, etc. is on, the articles from 1000 different sources flood my inbox. Normally, I just don't care. It's one of those shows that has less impact than it thinks it does, and I give it as much attention as I do the latest political spewings of some random Hollywood star.

If you don't know who Tomi Lahren is, she is the host of a show on Glenn Beck's "The Blaze" network, which I also don't watch. I occasionally catch episodes or clips from them of Tomi's show, and I can tell you... she's a fire storm. Her segments are a little practiced and obviously memorized, but that's alright.

This past week, she appeared on "The View," where she made the admission in the block quote that started this off. Again, I didn't pay it much mind and moved on with my life. But as the days have gone by, I noticed more and more people reacting to her in a negative way, tearing into her like she'd killed six people and three dogs.

Then, this afternoon, I found out that she'd been suspended from Beck's network, apparently for at least a week, but that normally means she's done on that network. And people are cheering the decision.

I don't normally touch the abortion topic for two reasons. 1. It is one of those topics that sparks tempers and anger and all kinds of stuff, and no matter what you say you are going to be wrong with a large portion of people, and I don't see it as worthy enough of an argument to get into when you literally can never be right and all the fighting impacts nothing. 2. I don't really know where I stand on abortion. I have been torn in two directions on the topic for as long as I can remember, and I don't feel comfortable labeling myself either pro-life or pro-choice.  I believe abortion is wrong. But I also don't want to see women going to back alley butchers again, and they will. It's similar to the 2nd Amendment argument - just because you outlaw it doesn't mean people won't get them. And while I wish people wouldn't, I know they will and would prefer they got it done safely instead of being killed horribly. So yeah, I'm torn on the subject.

Regardless of my opinion, what is happening to Tomi is what I refer to as eating our own. I've called the Democrats out on numerous occasions for doing this, and now I'm watching conservatives do it, too. People who, two weeks ago, agreed with 99% of what she said are now calling for her job because she doesn't agree with them on something.

Everyone has their own set of beliefs and values, and they are entitled to them. You are never going to agree with anyone 100% of the time, and vice versa. We scream when liberals try to silence conservative speakers and demand their right to free speech, but then when one of them holds an opinion we don't agree with... we do exactly the same thing.

Tomi has her own opinions. I don't agree with her all the time. It would be weird if I did. But like hell I'm going to try to silence her because she said something I don't like! I don't agree with 95% of the things Bill Maher says, and I won't try to silence him, either.

We need to stop eating our own. Tomi is on our side. Yes, she doesn't agree with one of the conservative platforms. That doesn't make her any less on our side.

A few weeks ago, Milo Yiannopoulos made comments on Bill Maher's show that gave the impression that he was a pedophile sympathizer (no, I don't think Milo is a pedo). His career has gone down the crapper since then and I believe he has left the USA. But conservatives seem to be getting behind him anyway, admitting they don't believe he is a pedophile or a pedophile sympathizer.  People are staunchly supporting him. And these are people who even looked past the fact that he's gay to support him.

Yet we're eating Tomi alive. I don't get it.

Folks, the time is now. Things have been hitting the fan for a while now, and we need to support those on our side... each other. We need to stand together. And we need to realize that we're not going to agree with each other 100% of the time. And sometimes, people are going to disagree with you on things you feel very strongly about. It's time to swallow our pride and our egos and support those who mostly support us. You can disagree. But let's stop trying to silence each other. We need all the voices we can get.

I am hearing a lot about the dead voting again. Apparently, every other month or so this becomes a big topic.

If someone in your family has passed away, you can get a form from your local board of elections to fill out as a notification that a registered voter has passed away. When my father passed last April, sometime over the summer I filled the form out to ensure he didn't vote in our presidential election.

​The form is like this:

​If you are from NC, that is our official form.

Most people either forget about it or don't realize this can be done. If you fill out the form, it makes it harder for a fraudster to get them registered to vote and to vote for them (it isn't a guarantee, but it makes it harder). I know he was removed from the rolls by the time we went to vote this year (I did check the book as they were gathering my information, his name was always by mine).

Just an FYI. Don't let your dead relatives vote Democrat.