With the country rattling to its core by virus and violence, I went outside the other day to breathe the fresh air and walk into Mother Nature’s unconditional and unprejudiced world.

I came across three mothers who were watching very young children playing in a yard. My eyes that were stained from the current dysfunction everywhere suddenly cleared when I saw these kids sharing their toys and enjoying their time together.

My mind then flashed to violent scenes I saw on TV and I wondered if these kids I saw playing nice with each other would grow up to become angry and unconscionable adults that we see committing crime all across “The Greatest Country in the World.”

What every adult has in common is a childhood. Whether a child grows up in a house where nobody smiles or a home where he or she lives the Brady Bunch life, every kid experiences childhood with much of the same emotions regardless of their circumstances. When we are little, we all laugh. We all cry. We all get scared. We all feel pain. We are sad, anxious, creative and curious. We really only want two things: to be accepted by the group and to get our fair share of happiness.

Every adult wants to be happy including those who steal or do harm to others. In an imaginary experimental study, I’d put a racist, a looter and a gang member in a room together. I’d also throw in a drug dealer. I’d wave my magic wand and they’d all be 5 years old again and not the grown-ups they’ve become, infected by social poisons and prejudices.

They would watch a video with their 5-year-old eyes. In the first scene, one child steals a cookie from another and the kid with no cookie cries. The next scene would show a white child leave a table at which a black child sits so he can be with kids of his own color. The black kid, sitting all alone now, cries. The third video scene would show one kid give something dangerous and harmful to another kid who gets sick from it. Both kids cry.

Understanding what happens in this video through their 5-year-old minds, the looter, the racist, the gang member and the drug dealer just might feel bad for the three kids who were victimized.

If I could wave a magic wand again over our country, I’d give everyone back their childhood sense of empathy for others. We have become a nation divided by race, by culture, and by politics and this massive division cannot create a healthy environment for Americans to care about Americans and for human beings to have empathy for other human beings.

Population studies are projecting that the assimilation of people of different colors and of different cultures will soon give birth to an American generation that is universally mixed with every race and ethnicity. On a job application, a guy named Everyday People will check the box that says “human being” to define his identity.

We all are “human beings” with 5-year-old kids living inside of us who still want to be accepted and who want a chance at our fair share of happiness.

Author Gerald G. Jampolsky wrote, “Adults are children, too, because in every adult’s heart, there is a child’s life that will stay there for eternity. So please listen to children, because when you don’t, it is like not listening to yourself.”

No little kid wants to hate or steal or beat up another kid or give another kid something that might destroy the rest of his life. Little kids don’t want to be Democrats or Republicans. They want to belong to a group called “Everybody.” Go into a kindergarten class and see the teacher nurture the togetherness and the respect her students have for each other.

So why do American adults consciously and purposely hurt each other? Why do they promote political ideologies that further divide an already fractured country? If they could trust their little kid hearts, they could work to bring everyone together into one America. If they tapped into the kid who lives inside them, they could show compassion for the men and women who are hurting and struggling to find happiness in a broken society.

Yong Kang Chan, author of several self-help books, sent this poignant message to adults who lack empathy and compassion. “Your inner child is waiting for a genuine, heartfelt apology.”

American author Joseph Heller said this about becoming a man, “When I grow up, I want to be a little boy.”

A little boy discovers he’s a person. A little girl discovers she’s a person. Their little eyes see every person as human beings, who like them, just want to be accepted and to be happy.

If Americans can open their little kids’ eyes and their little kids’ hearts, what a wonderful country this could be.

Rich Strack can be reached at katehep11@gmail.com.