We've been told again and again since the 9/11 attacks that we are united. We are far from united. We separate ourselves from one another with the racial issue and the haves and have-nots.

We judge people by the car they drive or how they dress, where they live, and the color of their skin. My stepdaughter had her first experience when she was only fifteen. She had been dating a boy for only a few weeks when he broke up with her because his parents forbid him to date anyone who lived in an apartment. We were considered have-nots and lowlife.

I tried to tell her that society was to blame for his parent's attitude but I couldn't reach her and she carried that scar for years, turning to drugs and going in and out of bad relationships. Eventually she came around and today she has two beautiful children and a healthy relationship.

It is twelve years later and society is the same. Recently, I had a shocking experience with another driver as I drove down the freeway in my '71 truck. I started making a lane change but little did I know the driver opposite me had the same idea. I moved to the right as he moved to the left and we almost collided.

We both backed off and I thought nothing of it until I looked over at him and he gave me the finger. The freeway ran out and I was back alongside him at a stoplight. I looked over at him and he gave me the finger again and said, "You are a have-not and I'm a have."

People shouldn't be judged by what they have, but whom they are inside and how they treat others. We act as we are treated and the emotional damage to a person can be devastating. A lack of self-esteem breeds drug abuse and violent behavior which is at an all-time high, and I fear that if society continues to divide us, we will forever pay the price.