The Civil War

Allow me to begin with a preliminary rant about education: The problem is that The Lights do not go on for everybody at the same time. For instance, the Light my hard-working history teachers wanted to show me pertaining to the American Civil War remained unnoticed by me for many, many years. My apologies to them. Even with my solid B average, I learned very little. The failings were all mine, not my teachers.
Lately, I have discovered a Civil War podcast that is helping me to fill in a few of the deplorable gaps in my awareness of what actually happened. The podcast has even given me a few glimpses into the Why of the Matter.
The podcast hosts (their names are Rich and Tracey) devoted the first 36 episodes to the lead-up to the War, and today (They recorded back in 2013) began the episodes pertaining to the Secessions and the Siege on Washington.
One point Rich and Tracey made early on is that those were very different times, and we were very different people; but are we?
At that time, President Lincoln offered the South the opportunity to deal with the problems the South had created for itself on their own terms. They could have kept the benighted institution of slavery where it already existed until they realized their own mistake, but the South would not have it. The problem of Slavery devolved even further into the problem of Secession.
Both sides rallied to their respective flags, and the killing went on for four years. And there is the problem. Humans will rally to a cause, and sometimes we will rally to the wrong cause.
Do not tell me the Civil War is only history! We are still divided, and we are divided along some of the very same lines.
Proposed: Let us learn to accept our neighbors. America is not, and never will be, any one set of ideals at the expense of all others.