HANA BUHLER, Pasco

Seven score and seven years ago, one of our nation's most beloved presidents, Abraham Lincoln, preserved the union by ending the Civil War.

Now, more than 500,000 citizens across the nation have united in a cause to divide our country into individual states. What these Americans may not realize is that our country has overcome even larger challenges in the past.

In 1861, a country strongly divided due to its unwillingness to compromise any further on the political issues of its day decided to forsake the path of diplomacy in favor of a path that would lead to war.

Over the next four years, our nation learned the price of pride. More than 500,000 lives were lost as a nation bitterly fought against itself while bloodily resolving its differences.

If the Civil War was waged to keep slaveholders part of the union, surely we should not divide our nation over a few Obama supporters.

Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it. Will our country continue as the United States of America, compromising and working together to overcome the seemingly insurmountable challenges we face today, or will we forsake our past?