As I sit here looking out over the Quad, I am struck by the relative peace that hangs over the campus. Friends of all ages, backgrounds, faiths and political views walk side-by-side in harmony as they go to classes and prepare for the future. As a freshman, this is truly an experience unlike any other. Sadly, it is also an experience that is growing less common in the United States.

Currently, it feels as if the very course of man, history and nature itself is preparing for nothing short of all-out war and chaos. In Tampa, we see the 2012 Republican National Convention calling for the end of the Obama presidency and a long awaited unity within the nation through its presidential candidate, Governor Mitt Romney. A now tainted hope, as the convention draws almost daily attacks. Before the convention had even begun, members of Occupy Tampa were arrested while protesting outside the convention for posing a security risk to the many party officials within the convention.

One of the mottos which has always been at the heart of the United States is “E. Pluribus Unum (Out of Many, One).” However, it would seem now that this motto has lost its meaning among current leadership. The three branches of government no longer recognize themselves as leaders of one unified nation, but rather as leaders of a Liberal nation and a Conservative nation. They then set about poisoning their own constituency with their own hatred, fear and shameful lack of respect for their fellow countrymen.

The result is that the masses fall into an accursed state of apathy and malaise, no longer seeking what is best for the nation, but rather becoming servants to the hegemony and bureaucracy of corrupt politicians on both sides of the aisle. This ensures that those who are in power will remain in power and that the voice of the people will be secondary to the voice of the people’s representatives.

Meanwhile while the nation bickers and fights amongst itself, the debt of our nation rises, and our once proud “Empire of Liberty” grows weak and fearful. What has happened to the Republic of the People?

I look to the day when apathy is sacrificed upon the alter of ambition. I look to the day when we will once again be a united people. This day will never come, however, unless the youth of today take up the cause of true liberty and of common sense.

Kyle Jones is a freshman majoring in political science and Spanish.