To the Editors:

Most of us in this part of Ohio root for the Cavs, Browns, or the Cleveland baseball team. Most people in New York, California, Texas, Boston, etc. root for their local teams. All year long there is a healthy exchange among sports fans from various parts of our nation. Occasionally, each area has its moments to brag, though some areas seem to be a lot more favored than others.

The division of opinions or the rooting for this or that team has many advantages to a thriving nation. However, there should never be any division among us as a people, a nation, as far as ensuring that the poor, especially, and others receive excellent healthcare, get a fine education, have good jobs, decent homes, feel safe, and are hopeful about the future.

Very few of us can be superstars on professional sports teams, outstanding artists, or musicians, but we can all play very important roles just by challenging all politicians to focus far more on what unites us than on what divides us. God has imbued us with a desire to have children; and He perhaps has given the ability to care for our young children because it is during their first six years that it is easiest to inculcate into them the values, attitudes, and insights to face a challenging world.

We should hope and pray that President Trump will begin working to unite us. But we must spend far more of our time and energy on focusing on the small but most significant things that made and make us a great nation. Surely there will be debate about how to proceed on this undertaking. But the basic goals that are nowhere in sight are the very ones on which we must focus. Trump’s base itself is suffering. Let our efforts be toward joining with them to ensure that our core values and needs are forever protected.

The stronger and more frequent arguments are for the above bread-and-butter issues, the more united the poor and middle class will be in spite of their party affiliations. And that unity across party lines, however slight, will be significant. Though many of us will remain active for a world without nuclear weapons, for an America without AR-15s, for a country with fewer walls, etc., success in making us a more united America creates space for us all to root, as we do for our favorite teams, for this or that politician on issues where there is a great divide. The status quo of disunity is harmful. We must reach President Trump’s base on core and common issues.