We are becoming a nation of haters. Hate mail is being sent to senators regardless of ethnicity. Innocent people are being harassed and attacked just because they voiced an opinion or support for a cause or a person. This has to stop.

There are violent and destructive protests against people, businesses and churches by anarchists, professional protestors and people protesting who don’t even know what they are protesting. (I am not condemning peaceful protests.)

We are all American’s regardless of our race, religion, politics, sex, job, education, position in life, etc. We need to act like the United States of America. United we stand, divided we fall, and we are on the verge of falling if we don’t unite and work together.

Marco Rubio, a senator from Florida, spoke Feb. 8 on the U.S. Senate floor after a senator verbally attacked another senator. Everyone should hear his remarks if you value this country and what it stands for. He noted that people can no longer debate without calling another person ugly names. Here is a transcript of an important part of his speech:

“I want people to think about our politics here today in America because I am telling you, guys, I don’t know of a single nation in the history of the world that has been able to solve its problems when half the people in a country absolutely hate the other half of people in that country. This is the most important country in the world. And this body cannot function if people are offending one another, and that’s why those rules are in place.

“I was not here when Secretary Clinton was nominated as a member of this body at the time. But I can tell you, I am just barely old enough to know that some very nasty things have been written and said about Secretary Clinton. And I think the Senate should be very proud that during her nomination to be secretary of state, despite the fact that I imagine many people were not excited about the fact that she would be secretary of state, to my recollection, and perhaps I’m incorrect, not a single one of those horrible things that have been written [or] said about her, some of which actually did accuse her of wrongdoing, were ever uttered on the floor of the Senate.

“I happen to remember in 2004 when then-Senator Kerry ran for president. Some pretty strong things were written, said about him. I was here for that vote when he was nominated and confirmed to be secretary of state. And I don’t recall a single statement being written into the record about the things that have been said about him.

“And I want everybody to understand at the end of the night, this is not a partisan issue. It really is not. I can tell you this with full confidence, if one of my colleagues on this side of the aisle had done that, I would like to think that I would have been one of the people objecting.”

Rubio’s comments were straight on, because we cannot function as a divided country. It doesn’t mean we all have to agree, but we need to be civil to one another. We need to understand that we all have some valid arguments, but we need to use our differences to strengthen our country not tear us apart. If we cannot work together to solve issues, we are dead as a nation.

I have been to Berlin before the wall came down that divided that city between freedom and communist imprisonment. I have been through Check Point Charlie leading into East Berlin and seen the many different contraptions, vehicles, etc. that people used risking their lives trying to escape the communist regime. We are blessed and we had better not let a small percentage of people get the rest of us riled up to destroy our country — the very freedoms that allow us to voice our views and peacefully protest to emphasis our views. Are we going to be united, or divided and self-implode?

Larry Brickman

Bellevue