SENTINEL WATCH December 6, 2004 Issue

'Please unite us'

By Tom Black

IN A NEWSREEL OF President Richard Nixon's first inauguration — a time of deep national division over the Vietnam war — a girl of about 12 years stood alone holding high a hand-lettered placard: "Please unite us."

That girl would be about 40 today, but the way things appear she could be holding an identical sign next month at President Bush's second inauguration. Yet by now she might reword the sign to say, "I'm looking to God to unite us."

A recent cartoon in this magazine's sister publication, The Christian Science Monitor, shows two painters angrily arguing over whether to paint the word UNITY in blue or red, or with a roller or a brush. The times have inspired some humor, and a little levity can take the sting out of this serious situation concerning a much-talked-about divided nation.