A Country-Wide Divide

due to ideological differences in the North and South. While our battlefields today tend to be Facebook and Twitter, the battlefields of the Civil War saw the deaths of 620,000 Americans (via nps.gov). Political issues today do not really compare to the issue of slavery during the Civil War period, but if we look at American politics in downward since its inception in 1981. In other words, every year our country is becoming more divided both in government and in the public. But why is this? This complicated question would probably take a whole essay to answer, so I will summarize what I believe is the most important. One reason is that regions of the country are becoming groups, often by race or economic status. This consequently alienates many voters from the other political party and pushes them further toward the political right or left. As a result, many Democrats, Republicans, and the politicians that represent them refuse to consider the other’s opinions on issues, compounding the nation’s division. the scope of the past 40 years, it is fairly evident that division in our country has increased every year with the exception of 2001. The Vanderbilt Unity Index, which uses five inputs to scale the United States’ national cohesiveness, has been trending increasingly split ideologically.

12 publishers before publishing Harry Potter. Michael Jordan was cut from his high school varsity basketball team. But my fear always seems to pop up in my most vulnerable moments of dealing with rejection and frustration. My solution to this? Embrace failure, in any form. Any accomplished person, especially those in the professional class, has failed in some way. Behind each perfect resume is a mountain of secrets: colleges people didn’t get into, essays that were rejected, job applications that were discarded, etc. Failure is inevitable. It happens to everyone. If only we can learn to embrace failure and learn from it, we will find out that it is not so scary after all. After recently receiving rejections from my top choice summer programs, I feel like I’ve grown a lot stronger. In fact, I feel less hurt by the words “We regret informing you...” While I’m sure I’ll receive no shortage of rejections in the future, I am now confident enough in myself to know that my only true failure would be in giving up.

It has become commonplace for more rural and southern states to unconditionally vote red, while the coastal and higher-density states to unconditionally vote blue. More than ever, politicians have specifically targeted their voting

Perhaps the most important reason is social media. As these sites’ algorithms become stronger, more and more of the user’s feed becomes full of onesided information. I have even experienced this personally, with my TikTok feed becoming increasingly riddled with videos corresponding to my political beliefs. In effect, social media is only showing the user what they want to see, completely isolating them from differing opinions. This has influenced many people to almost blindly hate their political “opponents” and think of them as misinformed or ignorant. Americans are beginning to only see one side of the coin, per se. Members of the other political party are now seen as enemies rather than people with contrasting beliefs. I think this has been the main reason why our country has recently become much more divided. Although there will never not be political conflict in our country, I still keep hope that we can lessen our divisions in the near future. To better unify our country, we first must target the sources of this divide. A potential way is through voting, which I am now able to do for the first time in my life. Although we are at the whims of companies like Facebook and Twitter when it comes to the flow of information, we are in control of who we elect to represent our interests. Choose wisely, Pingrians.

EMMA DAVIDKHANIAN (IV)

Sleepovers: a novelty as a young child. Packing a sleeping bag, bringing clothes and necessities for the following morning, and heading