A couple of days ago, I saw a friend drag a torn McCain-Palin sign into our dorm. She looked at me apologetically and said, “I know. I know. I saw it and I got angry. I feel really guilty about it now.”

I gave her a look and said, “That’s someone’s free speech you know.”

“I know. I shouldn’t have done it,” she retorted guiltily.

She went on to say she couldn’t help herself, that she was over taken by anger. I’m not supporting what she did. In fact, I made it pretty clear that I was disappointed for a multitude of reasons.

But what I’m trying to get to is why we’ve let ourselves get so divided. I’ve only lived under a Bush or a Clinton. In fact, until a couple months ago, I thought I’d live under a Bush or a Clinton until I was 26, but that’s not going to happen (despite the Internet rumors). So obviously I don’t have a lot to compare this to, but my study of history indicates pretty clearly that we’re a very partisan country right now.

Red or Blue. McCain or Obama. It’s how we define ourselves. But we’re so much more than that. There’s way more that unites us than divides us. I truly believe that.

My best friend and I are registered to two different political parties. She likes to pretend that she hates talking with me about politics. I think secretly (way down deep) she enjoys it. She likes that I care as much as I do about our country. She likes that I’m passionate about our future. I think the same about her.

Yes, we have different ideas about how to tackle Iraq and education and security and global warming and about a million other issues facing our country. But we both want to make a difference and we both want to make the world a better place.

There are 33 days until this election. It’s an important election. But the day after a winner is declared, we’re all still going to be here. And we’re still going to need our friends. So later today, I’ll call my best friend and ask her about the VP debate. I’m sure we’ll have different interpretations, but we’ll have fun arguing about them.