The celebration of the birth of our nation and the declaration of our independence and our freedom was marred by several events last week.

In 1776, 243 years ago, we declared our freedom from England’s tyranny. But that fact has seemed to have gotten lost in all the hate rhetoric spewing forth across the country as of late.

Nike pulled shoes with the Betsy Ross flag on the heel because Colin Kaepernick was offended.

If I was as easily offended as Kaepernick and his supporters I would have been offended as a woman on his attack on Betsy Ross. Betsy Ross was and is a great role model for young women. The country needed a flag, an emblem to call our own since we were no longer under England’s rule. Her design was NOT a design to support racism or slavery, but rather it was to declare in a loud, colorful voice that 13 colonies were free. It was a declaration of freedom.

But, alas, I was not offended, rather I just thought all the outrage over a flag made more than 200 years ago that had now become offensive was a bit over the top.

Just as people have become easily offended by everything today, as a society we also have become more discriminatory in nature, and not in a good way.

Discrimination, according Merriam-Webster, is  prejudiced or prejudicial outlook, action, or treatment; b: the act, practice, or an instance of discriminating categorically rather than individually.

Read the second definition again …  the act, practice, or an instance of discriminating categorically rather than individually.

Think about it.

Some are being discriminated against, yes, because of color, others because of sexual orientation.

People are discriminated against because of gender, or race and gender combined.

People are discriminated against because of their political views.

People are discriminated against because of their religious views.

Trump supporters/voters are lumped all together using a number of vile adjectives that may fit only a few, just as Clinton supporters were in 2016.

We no longer look at people as individuals but as whole groups of people and judge them accordingly, and unjustly, if I might add.

A few bad cops in a city makes people nervous so a gentlemen asks law enforcement to be removed from a Starbucks because that gentlemen has lumped all police officers into one category and discriminates against them.

Some people call for boycotting Starbucks, when it was one Starbucks customer and one Starbucks employee, but people’s logic nowadays is to discriminate against a whole franchise, rather than see people as individuals and feel sorry for those who discriminate against law enforcement.

Our country is divided more than ever because we do not see people as individuals but as labels. I believe social media has a lot to do with that.

We are not out meeting people one-on-one anymore but rather we attack one another through social media because it is easy.

I have real world friends who do not agree with me religiously, morally or politically, but they are my friends because I know who they are as a person. I do not define them by their beliefs. I know that we won’t agree 100% on everything. I accept that and I respect their opinions even if I do not agree with them.

Even my husband and I do not agree on everything. He roots for the Packers (NFC), I root for the Broncos (AFC), I root for the Rockies, he roots for the Mets. I like NASCAR, he likes Indy Racing League.

I won’t delve into our political beliefs here, but suffice to say we don’t agree on everything there either.

But I love him, I respect him and I value him as a person and as my husband.

I hope and pray that one day we as an entire nation can get back to looking at people on an individual basis, but I fear that will not happen in my lifetime.