My rebuttal to the State of the Union and the GOP response | GARY COSBY JR.

I wish to give a rebuttal to the State of the Union and to the Republican response, so what follows is what I wish either President Joe Biden or U.S. Sen. Katie Britt had said. It is what I wish anyone would say. I believe it is what a real American should believe:

America is a great nation, but it is not a nation without problems. It is time to deal with the greatest threat to our freedom, our legislative process, even our way of life. It is time to look in the mirror and ask ourselves a very simple question: What in the name of freedom are we doing?

More: Please don't do that again, Katie Britt | GARY COSBY JR.

We are doing to ourselves what no enemy nation can hope to do. We are tearing our nation apart. The United States of America is a great country, perhaps the greatest country to ever exist and certainly the greatest democratic republic to ever exist, yet we point fingers are every person with whom we have a disagreement and feel that our opinion and our opinion alone should be used to govern this land.

At a minimum, this is stupid and decidedly un-American. What reasonable person creates a situation that would destroy his own country, a country wherein we live without fear of our government invading our homes by night and hauling away those who dissent to a concentration camp? This is a country where you can be of any race, creed, religion, or from any nation on the planet and become one of us and attain the same rights that any person who is a citizen possesses.

If you want to know why people are coming here legally as well as illegally, that is the reason. This country stands like a city on a hill, glowing with splendor, a beacon to the oppressed, the downtrodden, the poor, and those for whom continuing in the lands of their birth means continuing in misery. I know some of you just felt sick when I said, “the poor and downtrodden wish to come here.”

You ask, “Why should I open the doors of this nation to the poor and downtrodden from other nations?” The answer is very simple. You were once the poor and downtrodden who came to this land, seeking precisely what those who are coming today are seeking. In short, you came here, and those today are coming here, because this is the land of opportunity.

It is time to cease this ridiculous infighting. It is time to call a halt to this across the aisle bickering. It is time to stop listening to the forces of division on the internet or on your television. Those people are getting rich off of the division that they themselves are fostering, feeding and tending with great care. It is time to stop listening to those voices because those are the voices of the true enemy of this great nation.

To the degree that we have spoken and repeated these divisive comments is the degree to which each of us needs to repent. And that is an interesting word: repent. It means to stop doing the thing you are doing and change your ways and go a new direction.

I will tell you without hesitation that neither the Democrats nor the Republicans are the problem or the solution. We have invested ourselves in a lie that says the other side is wrong and my side alone is right. We have invested ourselves in a culture of division that is so pronounced that reaching across the aisle now means something akin to being called a traitor to your party.

We have created a gap so wide and deep that crossing it to accomplish good things for the American people has become next to impossible. That is the one certain way to destroy this country. The phrase “We the people” is not something to put on a sticker in the window of one’s vehicle. It has been twisted to mean only one segment of the people, but that was never and can never be the meaning.

“We the people of the United States in order to form a more perfect union …” And it is that statement that has the solution. In order to form a more perfect union we must do certain things. First and foremost, we must stop looking at those who are different from us as the enemy.

It is time to look at our neighbor, no matter how different we are, and ask one simple question: What can I do to make your life better? If we will do that, not only will we gain understanding about our neighbor, their life and their problems, but we will also elevate ourselves. The greatness of a person is not measured in his or her wealth or power but in his or her humility and humanity.

Asking what can I do for my neighbor to improve his, her, or their lives is the beginning, it is the point at which division ends and the more perfect union begins. It is time to change America. That, friends and neighbors, is the first step.

Gary Cosby Jr. can be reached at gary.cosby@tuscaloosanews.com

This article originally appeared on The Tuscaloosa News: The State of the Union address we all need to hear | GARY COSBY JR.