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People Are Saying The Eclipse 2017 Is What America Needs To Unite Us

by John Haltiwanger
FREDERIC J. BROWN/AFP/Getty Images

America is a having a rough year. Most would likely agree the country is more divided than it has been in decades. But on Aug. 21, millions of Americans will stare up at the sky in wonder at the first coast-to-coast solar eclipse since 1918. It's been almost a century since this country has seen anything like this. There's a great deal of excitement about this and it actually has the U.S. feeling like it's coming together for the first time in a long while. Tweets about the eclipse show it's uniting America, even if it's just in a small or temporary way.

This will likely be one of the most documented events in human history due to social media, which is a pretty extraordinary thing. In a way, the eclipse helps remind us that we're all just very small but interconnected parts of the universe. The country needed this distraction. It needed a moment like this to come together and celebrate something bigger than itself. By the time it's over, the eclipse will have run from Oregon to South Carolina and tens of millions of Americans will have gone outside to witness the spectacular event.

People are definitely feeling sentimental about how this is uniting the country and took to Twitter to talk about it.

Some might roll their eyes at the notion the solar eclipse has suddenly unified America. There's no question the United States faces an array of major challenges at the moment and the eclipse definitely isn't a solution to any of these problems. But however brief it might be, it's refreshing to see Americans come together in any capacity. Sometimes, we just need to be reminded that we're all human and our disagreements mean very little in the grand scheme of things. There's also nothing wrong in finding joy in seeing people across your country share a moment of childlike wonder.