America's First Civil War

"Our first civil war, which turned into the Revolutionary War, really was for all the marbles. If we had not been successful, it would have led to some very dark days for the Colonies..."

If you are looking for a great way to earn a free drink at a bar, try asking this question. "Who was the first American Civil War fought between?" Tell the person if he (or she) gets it right, you will buy that person a drink. If the person does not get the right answer, you get the free drink. Sound easy? Not so much it seems.

Historians believe our first civil war was not fought between the North and South. It was fought between the Colonies and the British Empire. It was a civil war right up until our Declaration of Independence was signed. It then became a war between two nations. That is the technical difference the historians see. As far as the British were concerned, it was still a civil war fought between them and rebels in the colonies.

As history has shown, we did win the war and our independence. We went on to become a more perfect union. That is until 1860 when our more perfect union hit a bump in the road. Actually it was a huge bump when some southern states decided to secede from the Union. And then on April 12, 1861, Fort Sumter was bombarded and our second civil war broke out. And it was a long and bloody affair. State against state, neighbor against neighbor, sometimes brother against brother. It lasted four long years and it is estimated that over 750,000 Americans died fighting each other. Even though the war ended in 1865, it scarred the nation for years to come.

Not too long ago a long time friend of mine asked if I thought we were headed for another civil war. My immediate response was I sure hope not. However with that being said, I had a disturbing thought. Are we still a more perfect union? Do we have differences which are reconcilable? Or are we at the point of just hating each other?

Truthfully, sometimes I feel as if we are two separate countries living within the same borders. Speaking the same language yet still not being able to communicate. In the beginning, our Founders would argue details, but were still bound by common goals. Today, I really wonder if our goals are still common. In fact, I feel many of them are just flat out uncommon.

So even if we are not headed into another civil war, we seem to have lost our bearings on being a civil nation. Yelling has replaced talking, invective has replaced dialogue. In less than 300 years, we have devolved from "out of many, one", into "many and fractured". 

This is not the place we were meant to be in. We did not fight two civil (and revolutionary) wars to get to this place. We are better than this. We need to be better. We have to do better.