Our country has lost its collective mind, and it is time honest, hard-working, moral men and women did something to reverse the trend that is quickly spiralling out of control.

Notice we said men and women. We did not say Republicans or Democrats, Independents or non-voters, we said men and women, individuals who stand first for what is right in this world and not what is politically correct, individuals who don’t stand with party first and push everything else to a distant second.

To do so, however, will mean looking objectively at what is going on and being willing to stand up against poor behavior even if that behavior comes from someone we support.

For instance, there is nothing right about the leader of the free world standing at a podium to mock anyone — not a veteran, not someone with a handicap, not someone who disagrees with him, and not someone who is alleged to be a sexual assault victim.

It should be beneath the office of the president to behave in such a manner.

Whether we like President Trump or not, whether we support his Republican philosophy or not, we should be able to see beyond those things to acknowledge when he does something that is, at the best, a poor example and, at the very worst, a detriment to the state of our country. That type of behavior, which often works his most ardent supporters into a hate-filled frenzy, does nothing to unite us as Americans.

The same can be said of Democratic members of Congress who seemed to have latched onto possible sexual assault victims, using them as their sword of valour, professing to be their defenders when, in truth, they withheld information far too long for their own personal party gain. It’s reprehensible behavior from men and women who we have chosen to represent our states and, thus, our nation.

Just as reprehensible is the rush to appoint Brett Kavanaugh to a Supreme Court seat simply so we can say we have a conservative on the court. Republicans should be just as appalled at their representatives and senators as they are with Democrats across the aisle, all who are acting like petulant children bent on having their way no matter what the truth might actually be.

It seems the truth, just like respect, simply doesn’t matter on Capitol Hill or Pennsylvania Avenue.

If it did, Kavanaugh would have been reprimanded for his vehement, partisan, angry and untoward responses to questions during last week’s hearing. A judge who, until last week, we thought fair and impartial, proved otherwise as his true colors began to emerge.

As sad as it is, we’ve come to expect disrespectful, less than truthful behavior from many of those in Washington, no matter their political persuasion. But what is sad, is that their behavior is now seeping into our everyday lives, severing friendships, dividing communities and upending family ties.

Social media has been the battlefield and those in positions of authority have been the weapons used to wish people of different parties away from us, banished to other places. Posts calling Democrats evil and urging banishment to other states are as sad as those likening Republicans to Neo-Nazis and narrow-minded dispassionate hate-mongers.

Have we really forgotten that Democrats and Republicans, Trump supporters and Trump detractors are our friends and neighbors, the people we work shoulder-to-shoulder with in our communities, the individuals we sit beside in church and who teach our Sunday school classes?

We are not one another’s enemies and it’s time we realized it and then acted like it.