By Will Collins

As we continue to see division occurring in our country, it is important to keep facts in check in order to reunite as one nation.

We are always going to have liberal views and conservative thought, majorities and minorities and same sex unions.

But at the end of it all, we need to recognize ourselves and each other as Americans and dare I even say, one nation under God. In too many instances, we are looking for reasons to argue and point fingers simply for the sake of pointing and arguing.

Over the past several years, much has been said about removing Confederate statues across the U.S. and it has hit our own region in the last few weeks. Again, the finger pointing has come out as many are accusing Republicans of being racist because it is “them” who fight against the removal of such historic monuments.

As a conservative, I will be the first to disagree with this sentiment.

I believe slavery is the most detestable act that has ever occurred on our soil and any other place on Earth where it was practiced.

Second to slavery as a deplorable act was the treatment of African-Americans prior to the Civil Rights movement in the late 1960s.

In fact, it saddens me to know this was a part of the history of the greatest country in the world. But unfortunately, it was, and, in truth, while absolutely horrible, it should not be forgotten, lest we make the same mistakes twice.

Yes, I know we live in a time where we would not see such things repeated, but there are still reasons we learn history and not hide it in the past.

If you really want to take a trip back in time, the slave owners were Democrats and those who opposed and fought for individual rights were Republicans.

This isn’t my opinion, it is fact.

Many of today’s Democrats will tell you things have changed so much since those times, and in reality, the slave owners were conservative while Lincoln was actually liberal.

I’m very sorry, but I’m here to tell you, it doesn’t work that way. You can’t try to portray a world where all things good are from the Democrats and all conservative values are evil.

I have heard this for years.

Someone even had the brevity to tell me that President Ronald Reagan was such a good president because he used to be a Democrat and all things good came from that part of his ideology.

Today, liberals try to portray conservatives as being racist, which, in reality, stems from our being opposed to some policies involving affirmative action. When Abraham Lincoln delivered the Gettysburg Address and stated “that all men are created equal,” they were considered great and powerful words.

Republicans continue to believe in these words and desire a country that follows such wisdom; everyone and anyone, regardless of race, has the same opportunities.

As a manager, I have hired multiple African-Americans into leadership positions of all levels and not one single person was hired because of their race, but because they were better and more deserving than the other candidates.

In our business, I not only taught but, in a sense, demanded a culture of equality. There was no room for division because of race, national origin, sex or sexual preference.

Everyone worked as a team with a common goal of providing premier customer service to our clients. If you “moved up the ladder,” it was because of your quality of work.

As a nation, we still have our issues and need to continue in an effort to reach a point where the word minority is also a thing of the past and replaced with the word American, because that’s what we are.

In the mid- to late-1800s, we were better than we were at the inception of the U.S.

In the 1940s, as we fought Adolph Hitler and his evils, we were still better than the 1800s. Today, we are better than we were in the 40s, 50s, 60s and beyond. All of this is because of one thing in which everything can be linked, and that is knowledge. We learn from the good and we learn from the bad. I’m obviously hoping for continued improvement, truly being one nation under God.

We always root for the underdog and want the best for those deserving and trying hard.

As Dr. Ben Carson said, “I don’t think affirmative action is appropriate, but I do think compassionate action is.” It would do us all good to learn the difference.

Political enthusiast Will Collins is a lifelong resident of Kentucky and has called Winchester his home for the past 20 years. He can be reached at wrcollins70@gmail.com