During Martin Luther King Jr. weekend, millions of people gathered in rallies and protests across the nation as the government entered its 28th day in shutdown. It was the perfect storm for all the demons of the last two years to rear their ugly heads on the national stage for all the world to see.

With the controversy of the Women’s March regarding anti-semitism taking away much of the sentimental narrative of the event, the national media was focused on a video that surfaced on Twitter that appeared to show a group of March for Life teenagers from Covington Catholic High School surrounding and taunting a small group of activists with the Indigenous Peoples March.

Upon discovery of footage that showed Native Americans breaking up a hate-filled bout between Black Hebrew Israelites and the aforementioned high schoolers, the waters of national debate were further muddied. The nation, if it was not already, seemed to be at its greatest divide.

To add insult to injury, President Trump was set to speak on national television regarding a proposal to reopen the government. Before he could officially make the announcement, Democratic majority leaders swiftly denied the terms.

So, where do we go from here? A government on its 33rd day of a shutdown at the time of this article being published and a nation in unrest. We continue forward to push beyond the temporary gloom. The nation is suffering through growing pains. From those pains, the nation will see greater heights. It all begins now.

Pragmatically speaking, this shutdown cannot last forever, and its ending, perhaps, will allow us to move past one of the more ugly political bouts in recent memory. If we choose to look at the greater forest beyond the trees, we could see that we will soon have an opportunity to vote for what we believe in if we make our voices heard at the ballots. If we can be a nation that learns from its mistakes, then we have learned quite a bit this weekend.