Our country has always been a big, brawling hulk of a nation.

One need not read too deeply into our history books to find that Americans are a passionate, determined people who have had ideological differences since our inception.

U.S. history even includes a horribly deadly Civil War, where brother fought against brother in a conflict whose issues resonate to this day.

So when I see the great divides that seem to split our country into inflexible factions today, I don't lose all hope. I just remember that this is an American trait, hard-wired into our national DNA.

While we may all fiercely love our country, we are a nation of rugged individualists who have many different ideas about what is best for it. And ‘twas always thus.

From those conflicts come many things, some helpful, some horrible. Yet our country has continued to endure. And evolve, believe it or not.

I recently took a walk on the new Ashokan Rail Trail, which runs along the Ashokan Reservoir along what used to be the Ulster and Delaware Railroad Tracks. One sign along the trail noted that the Reservoir was built by many hands from 1907 to 1915.

There were local laborers, African Americans from the South, Italian immigrants as well as immigrants from many other European countries. So many people were needed that a workers' camp, essentially a small town, was constructed for them, with houses and a hospital. However, it was noted that the homes of the African Americans and the Italians were segregated from the rest of the workers.

I can remember my grandmother talking about the Italian immigrants who came to her upstate village of Mount Morris when she was a girl at the turn of the twentieth century. She found these Italian immigrants exotic and a bit scary, akin to the gypsies that children were warned about in those days.

Let us remember that each new wave of immigrants was viewed with fear which turned to acceptance as we began to see them as individuals, not the feared “other.”

And, lest we forget, anti-Semitism was blatant and accepted in polite society in America for years, with quotas to keep Jews out of elite universities, and the creation of private clubs or restricted neighborhoods. After World War II it subsided, but sadly, now is again rearing its ugly head, as white supremacists find traction in the statements of an ignorant and ruthless leader.

The fight for America and what it stands for is ongoing. And, in spite of those who want to “otherize” the latest wave of immigrants or suggest that human rights may not apply equally for all, I believe that our nation will, warts and all, continue to grow in a positive direction as long as the battle continues.

Yes, we are a nation of people with strong beliefs but eventually, as history shows us, truth and justice will prevail, however long the struggle may be.