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:: Wednesday, December 31, 2003 ::

America: Divided we stand
"For many Americans, 2003 was a year to take sides," writes Sharon Cohen of the Associated Press in a year-end analysis of the United States as a nation and culture.

From church pews to the courts, from talk shows to Capitol Hill, debate over social issues -- abortion, gay marriage, the right to die -- stirred a nation that also was divided over the war in Iraq.

The sense of unity that swelled across the country in the wake of the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks faded, and heated rhetoric and finger-pointing returned as America edged closer to the 2004 presidential race.

"Cynicism is back in full force. Extraordinary political partisanship and acrimony are back," says David Blankenhorn, president of the Institute for American Values, a think tank focusing on family and civil society.

Reading this piece reminds me of those famous lines W.B. Yeats's poem "The Second Coming":

Things fall apart; the centre cannot hold;
Mere anarchy is loosed upon the world

:: Andrew 08:17 + ::
...

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