COMMENT | That was Abraham Lincoln in 1858 when confronting the issue of whether America can be half-slave and half-free. Make no mistake, beneath the calm surface of our everyday lives, we too are becoming a house divided against itself, half secular and half religious.

Every issue, every event, every disaster, every bill and every law are viewed through the narrow prism of either race, religion or both. “We, the People” have become “Us, against Them”.

We did not get to this point overnight. Blighted by the rabid politics of race in the 1980s, the fight for power morphed into the even more dangerous politics of religious supremacism.

And today, like all divided societies, the only relief comes from casting our ballots and individual acts of kindness with some stand-up comedy thrown in to keep our hopes alive even as devious politicians proclaim “Unity” while working behind the scenes to disunite us.