them and us

"We don't differentiate between them and us. It's just us." President Barak Obama, September, 2010.

Before 9-11, I had a tag line that said, "We're all in this together. Luckily."

So then, should I drop the "Luckily," or what?

I dropped the tag line.

On the other hand, most of us know, deep down, that we're all in this life together. Luckily or not.

One of the nice things about being a citizen of the United States of America is that the common abbreviation is "US." You can't fault the sentiment, even if you fault the yelling. Or the frequently unwarranted self-satisfaction.

Nonetheless, I am proud to be an American.

Not so proud about our characterizing ourselves as the only important folks in several continents who should get to call them-/ourselves Americans. Continents where lots of important folks—who are not citizens of the US of A—live. But you can't have everything.

We, on the planet we call Earth, are all in this together. If people in Pakistan are dying, it should concern us, being people ourselves. (As a researcher, I was taught to say "persons" rather than "people" because only scientifically definable groupings are "people." Researchers are not always right.)

What do we mean when we differentiate between "them" and "us"? I mean, we all do it so it must mean something. Maybe it just means that we can't solve and protect everything so we should just work on things that concern "us." OK. So where do we draw the line?

This is the stuff that keeps me awake nights. This and the arthritis pain. So if it keeps you awake too (not, I hope, the arthritis pain—just the other stuff), maybe you can come up with some solutionary ideas.

Since it's just us, I hope you can because I'm trailing again.