Instead of showers of blessings, a well-known North Carolina pastor sprinkled showers of urine on an unsuspecting passenger aboard a Delta flight from Las Vegas to Detroit.

The oldest living person in the United States is an African-American God-fearing woman who says the key to longevity is to “treat people right.” On July 6, Alelia Murphy celebrated her historic 114th birthday, surrounded by family and friends at the Harlem State Office Building in New York.

Love, civility, tolerance and understanding are out the window this election season, because race-baiting is a winning political strategy in an ugly game where everybody loses. America is on the brink of implosion as party lines have become battle lines and politicians’ headline-grabbing rhetoric deepens the racial, social and ideological divide in our nation.