Do you ever wonder why during emergencies we come together as a community and work towards a mutual goal but during “peace” we fight and bicker amongst each other over the silliest things? I have been pondering this for the last few weeks. I noticed how our community helped each other during the Smith River Complex fire’s beginning. I saw so many acts of kindness, people from all levels of society, across the aisle, helping each other. Nobody was complaining about republican or democrat policies. All we wanted to do was help our fellow neighbors regardless of their ideologies.I believe the answer is because we as humans are social beings and we adapt to our environment. Meaning we follow the crowd and move with the waves of public opinion/regard. So, during “peacetimes” we do not share a common goal, we see a lot of anti-unity rhetoric being spread by both political sides, on the local/state/federal levels. But when we have an emergency on the local level, we come together as a county(fire). When we have an emergency on the state level, we come together as a state(hurricane). And when we have an emergency on the federal level, we come together as a country(9/11-Lahaina).I guess what I am getting at is, how do we maintain unity regardless of the environment? Easy, do not accept the hate that gets spewed from the news, political opponents. Do not accept their answer of “I can’t believe you think that’s ok”, instead embrace diversity and try to understand other perspectives as your own. And do not put others down for believing what they believe. Theres always a goal, but if that goal is rooted in hate for the opposition, then we will never unite, fully.#placement_573654_0_i{width:100%;max-width:550px;margin:0 auto;}var rnd = window.rnd || Math.floor(Math.random()*10e6);var pid573654 = window.pid573654 || rnd;var plc573654 = window.plc573654 || 0;var abkw = window.abkw || '';var absrc = 'https://ads.empowerlocal.co/adserve/;ID=181918;size=0x0;setID=573654;type=js;sw='+screen.width+';sh='+screen.height+';spr='+window.devicePixelRatio+';kw='+abkw+';pid='+pid573654+';place='+(plc573654++)+';rnd='+rnd+';click=CLICK_MACRO_PLACEHOLDER';var _absrc = absrc.split("type=js"); absrc = _absrc[0] + 'type=js;referrer=' + encodeURIComponent(document.location.href) + _absrc[1];document.write('');Joe BurrellCrescent City googletag.cmd.push(function() { googletag.display('ad-1515727'); });