Worthless pieces of paper traded for anything you could possibly want? How?

Agreement. It was always the agreement that was of value. Seems once that principle (and its opposite about houses divided falling) is understood, we can see why the current theatre called politics is used as misdirection. Its very nature presupposes division and prods it with sticks as it amplifies the results with media programming.

It's clearly more important to band together based on our similarities rather than allow ourselves to be divided and conquered by our differences.

Easier said than done.

Yeah, I don't have much energy left as I enter the winter of life. If someone wants to declare themselves an enemy, I'll believe them and plan accordingly instead of probing to deep on the whys of the matter now.

Interesting tidbit, back in my day many kids (myself included) not only had access to guns, but owned them personally. I can remember them being allowed at school (you would see them in truck windows of other students) and no one batted an eye. Kids shooting schools up was uncommon (I never heard of it as a kid).