What’s gone wrong with your country?
What’s gone wrong with my country?
What’s gone wrong with our country?
Overwhelming questions about an overwhelming collection of issues. And everyone today has their opinion and that’s part of the problem. Everyone is an expert about whatever you ask them and they don’t give a rat’s butt about your opinion or anyone else’s. Everyone’s talking. No one’s listening.
The movie “Perfect Storm” comes to mind. Except this is far worse, far more serious. Everything United States seems to be imploding simultaneously.
Many people do not practice civility today. Many can’t even define it. I suspect many Americans of 2022 have never heard the word. Do values matter any longer? Values? Yep. Things like loyalty, love of country, a moral compass, respect for our U.S. Constitution, respect for your fellow man, duty, selfless service, honor, integrity and personal courage. Those are but a few.
I’ve heard people – who are not conspiracy types mind you – express the opinion that our institutions are disintegrating before our eyes, utterly collapsing. Education. Religion. Economics. Family. Health care. Government. Politics. Journalism/media. The Rule of Law. Respect for authority.
The media stir the pot daily, sowing dissent yet seeking ratings and advertising dollars. Objective journalism died a while back, hastened by Watergate. It wallows within itself daily.
It feels like the country is a ticking time bomb. Adults brawl at Disney, of all places. People kill others in broad daylight, everywhere. Everyday. They snatch cars and children. Try to stop them and you die. A man attempts to murder a political candidate as he’s speaking and the villain is released six hours later on his own recognizance and not charged with attempted murder. Thankfully, the Feds charged him with attempted murder. Mean angry people push others under subways. And people watch and do nothing, scared, seemingly helpless. Passengers fight on airplanes.
Masks or no masks? A man stabs his wife to death on the side of a public highway as others watch in disbelief.
People are living scared lives everywhere. What’s next?
The crime, the homeless and their drugs and human waste on the sidewalks of San Francisco, coupled with lax law enforcement, are guarantees I’ll never visit one my favorite cities in the U.S.
Ditto for Portland, Seattle, Baltimore, Chicago, Philadelphia, New York City, Detroit, Minneapolis and a few others, all with huge problems that seem to be worsening. Too danged risky. Staying home is safer.
Some of the specifics fueling our unrest … in no particular order:
- Violent crime out of control.
- Civil unrest.
- Prices at the pump.
- The immigration crisis at the southern border and what that will mean going forward.
- Roe vs. Wade.
- Russia. China. Ukraine.
- Who’s a boy and who’s a girl or who’s a girl and who’s a boy?
- Climate change – pro or con?
- Racism. Black Lives Matter. Why not all lives?
- Are you woke? Or woke enough. Hmmm …
- A threat of terrorism – domestic or otherwise.
- Covid.
- Guns or no guns? Or some guns?
- The growing drug problem.
- School shootings.
- The Too Far Right. The Too Far Left.
- You want to be a cop today? Didn’t think so.
- Is withdrawing money from an ATM risky? Yes!
- Church membership and attendance keep dropping.
Can – or will – it get worse? The odds favor worse. My heart wants better. It prays for better. Craves better. I’m 75, the oldest of the Baby Boom Generation, born in 1946. We’re not worried about ourselves. We’re worried about our children and our grandchildren. The future is frightening. What will their world be like?
Things are not good today. Things are bad. Very bad. Very unstable. Very volatile. Very angry. In years past the country had the ability to correct things when it was veering off the rails, and this time I am fearful that may not happen. Many of us feel helpless, angry, depressed … and mad as hell. Maybe scared to say anything. I bet a lot of folks pray these days. Or maybe just a few.
I’d love to experience a smidgen of optimism. I’m not there yet.
And the real crapper about this is – it’s all self-inflicted chaos.