I had breakfast this morning with my friend Paolo from Milan Italy. Paolo teaches screen writing and the business of television in Milan and we had a wonderful conversation about the state of television both here in America and over in Europe.

What was perhaps even more interesting, however, was to discuss the state of politics in Europe. One of my biggest concerns in this country is how divided we’ve become. It scares me that my republican friends hate the democrats so much and my democratic friends hate the republicans so much.

Paolo told me that he felt Europe was similar. We discussed the European constitution and he described the battle over the place of religion in that constitution. Ultimately he said that they decided to keep religion out of the constitution, but the battle was fierce. He feels Europe is divided much the same way American is. It was interesting because I usually don’t think of Europe in those terms.