Have we forgotten? We’re all Americans. We’re all in this together.

Frankly, I’m tired. I’m tired of hearing about what is wrong with the other side and how righteous we are and how awful they are. I find it hard to believe that other Americans aren’t just about the same as you and me. Don’t we all want the same thing at the end of the day?

I see division everywhere. It’s in our schools. It’s at my work. I can’t help but to see it everywhere as I walk around at the grocery store and my neighborhood. Just like when we run around in our cars, COVID-19 has taken away our ability to get up close and personal with others. Just as we can be 10 times as angry with anyone while driving behind our safe space of steel and glass, COVID has disconnected us from each other.

We’re left behind our electronic devices. We’re left to watch the news, read our social media feeds and talk to our teammates over Zoom. Sure, technology has helped us, but it’s also taken away our ability to see one another for the precious, beautiful people that we all are.

To me, the solution is simple.

We all want our freedom. Freedom to be able to do what is best for us in the time that we need to do it. This is difficult, but we must let people make their choices about what is best for them.

I say it’s difficult, but isn’t that what you want: to be able to make your own choices about your life too? That goes for everything: whether they get a vaccine to protect themselves and their loved ones against COVID-19 or whether they have the right to talk to their doctor in private about what is best for their reproductive needs. They have the right to decide for themselves whether what they are hearing is factual or fiction. If they want to believe in fiction, they have every right to believe what they believe.

If we don’t want people to be snookered by fictions, why are we blaming the folks being duped? Instead, let’s protect people from outrageous untruths or even outrageous payday loans. Why should people need to be on constant guard that what they are hearing or signing up for might be against their better mental, physical, or financial health?

We need to build a certain amount of trust that people can count on as real and factual. Read the book “The Speed of Trust.” Pick it up and reread it if it’s been a while.

And I guess I should back up. We obviously don’t have the right to do everything. For example, we do not have the right to spread an infectious disease all around our communities that kills people. So if you don’t want a vaccine, that’s cool, but you’re going to need to do everything that you can to not spread an infectious disease so that those who are too weak, young or vulnerable are protected. Whether that means wearing a mask or doing any of the other things that the disease experts tell us stops the spread based on the data that they have collected, that’s what you need to do.

We do not have the right to drive vehicles under the influence of drugs and then smash into others. We don’t have the right to murder. We don’t have the right to abuse and neglect our family or our neighbors.

In America we have a lot of privileges, and one of those is voting. When you go to the ballot box this fall, go with a head full of information that will allow you to make the best possible choice you can make. Don’t take your freedoms for granted. Democracy is not a given. It is fragile and could vanish in a heartbeat if you let it.

Take time to work on solutions today rather than lament all the problems. When someone comes to you with a problem or complaint, tell them: “Sorry, for every problem that you bring me, I need two solutions”. You deserve to hear solutions.

Solutions are hard. Problems are easy.

Work on solutions because our freedom is worth it. And I for one am thrilled that I have freedom.

Susan Quinn works as an engineer in northeast Kansas. She is a native Kansan, born and raised in the Emporia community. She enjoys art, theater, gardening, reading, you name it. She loves her community and enjoys volunteering most of all.

"We’re left behind our electronic devices. We’re left to watch the news, read our social media feeds and talk to our teammates over Zoom. Sure, technology has helped us, but it’s also taken away our ability to see one another for the precious, beautiful people that we all are.”