It's Fathers Day in the United States. It's a day to celebrate the primary positive father figure archetype qualities: guardian, protector, and teacher.

It's the warrior who bridges gaps in the community, rather than creating and widening rifts. Fathers should bring understanding and help chart courses for others, leading with open hands rather than pounding fists, but ready to go to battle if needed.

Somehow our willingness to battle, our defensiveness and divisiveness are heightened in the Land of the Free. I think George Packer put it pretty well:

"We Americans don’t just disagree with one another. We don’t just have different values, narratives, and perceptions of truth. We actually see one another as moral threats, incompatible with all that we consider good, and we fantasize about a country in which the threats are no longer around."
-- George Packer in an interview by The Atlantic

I don't know how so many Americans have become so antagonistic regarding different points of view. The Us vs Them divisions will always exist, but intellectual curiosity and discussion should be much higher on the initial reaction list than they are now.

Our founding fathers would probably be disappointed in how their great experiment is progressing.