When You Reach The Fork In The Road, Take It
One road leads to total destruction, the other to almost certain annihilation. Let us pray we choose wisely.
I started this hell-bent on firing off all manner of numbers and statistics to make what I imagined would be a brilliant argument about…well, I can’t even remember what. I knew that I’d crush my gentle reader in facts and figures that would make my argument- whatever it was meant to be- absolutely unassailable.
Then I realized that what I’m feeling has nothing to do with numbers and statistics, much less facts and figures. I’m proud to be American. I always have been and always will be. But that hasn’t blinded me to the many things that make this country far less than the Shining City on the Hill so many believe it to be.
This country has so much potential. We have resources- brain power, ingenuity, technical know-how, creativity, and capital- that most countries can only dream of. Yet while so many build, create, invent, improve, and innovate, many others are left behind and find themselves on the outside looking in.
The reasons why are the argument I think I was looking to make, but I realized that I’m less concerned with “why” than “Where do we go from here?”
Millions of Americans still go to sleep each night without a roof over their heads. Many of those suffer from mental health issues, some from substance abuse problems, and still others from various combinations of both. Yet many states and localities lack the money or compassion to provide treatment options for those in need.
Even for those gainfully employed and housed, millions can’t afford basic health insurance. Thanks to Obamacare, more can afford health insurance now, but Republicans have made it clear that they’d take it away at their first available opportunity. If that happens, millions of Americans will be forced into poverty again.
It’s what happens when abject cruelty and a pronounced lack of regard for the dignity and humanity of others becomes a policy goal.
Kinda makes you wonder who their constituency is, doesn’t it? It shouldn’t. Despite their campaign promises, they’ve never given a damn about the “little guy.” Just ask Sen. Rick Scott (R-FL), who wants to raise taxes on…wait for it…everyone BUT the wealthy.
We could be the country where people look out for one another. That might sound strange to our American way of thinking, but I’ve spent time in Norway and Iceland, where people DO care about one another. There’s a sense of community, a feeling that everyone matters. Sure, personal responsibility is still considered important, but so is an understanding of the collective, that everyone is part of the whole.
That’s what’s missing in this country, where it’s every person for themselves. It’s a dog-eat-dog world, and we’re all wearing Milk-Bone underwear.
That’s what has me feeling down in the dumps these days. There’s so much more America could accomplish. Yet we lose so much through our lack of regard for one another.
Two weeks ago, 19 second- through fourth graders and two teachers were mercilessly slaughtered by an 18-year-old wielding a weapon of war. That act alone was manifestly horrific, but making matters worse were those who claimed that it was a “false-flag” operation run by the “deep state.” To their way of thinking, it was a sinister plot to trample the 2nd Amendment rights of good, God-fearing, Patriotic, Proudly Closed-mind Gun Control Foes. The “false-flag” operation was run by Liberal gun-grabbers who would do anything, no matter how dastardly, to take the guns of law-abiding Proudly Closed-minded Gun Control Foes.
It seems little is accepted at face value anymore. Everything gets parsed for hidden meaning. Conspiracy theories are the rule, not the exception. Instead of assuming the best of people, many automatically default to assuming the worst. Everything terrible is Joe Biden’s fault- whether or not he could be responsible barely registers. Nothing good happens because of him, and even the mainstream media is programmed to see him fail.
I want to believe that there’s a better version of America out there, that there’s something that might trigger our better angels. There has to be a way for us to, if not love, then at least tolerate one another. Because if you project things out a few years the prognosis doesn’t look good.
Even some in Canada are preparing for the possibility that American democracy might collapse or that we might soon be under a Far-Right government of questionable democratic credentials. Whether that will prove an overreaction remains to be seen, but it's not impossible given what’s transpired over the past few years.
(Don’t worry; it’s nothing that 38 seconds of a dog and goose chase can’t cure.)
Whatever happens, there’s little doubt that we’re at a stressful point in American history. Our democratic institutions are being tested in ways they’ve never been before. But, on the other hand, there’s the chance that this may turn out to be a good thing. It could provide the wake-up call we need to shake ourselves out of our collective stupor.
Or we could continue our inevitable slide into autocracy as American politics is slowly given over to those who believe money equals political speech.
I grew up naively believing that America was indestructible. As I’ve grown older, I’ve learned that this country is an imperfect democracy run by decidedly imperfect human beings. Power may corrupt, but money AND power corrupt absolutely, and, at least from what I’ve heard, absolute power is kinda fun.
I suppose what I’m trying to say in this undisciplined rambling run-on rant is that I still believe in the American ideal, but what I see around me these days leaves me wondering if those in positions of power still do. Is public service still an ideal? Do people go into public service with the belief that they can make a difference? Does the “service” in public service still mean anything?
Or is it just about self-aggrandizement, self-enrichment, and self-promotion? Is it about trying to climb the pyramid until you’re the one left standing on top?
Is it about the Ted Cruz model of public service? Or Jamie Raskin’s example?
Or do we continue circling the drain as we have been since the town hall season of 2010 when the Tea Party knocked American politics on its ass, where it’s been ever since?
Surely we can be better than this, right?
And stop calling me Shirley….