I\u2019ve been \u2013 well \u2013 the correct term might be \u201cdis-heartened\u201d. As any frequent reader of \u201cOur America\u201d probably knows, I am consistently, some might say overly, optimistic about the future of our nation: \u201cThe arc of the moral universe bending towards justice,\u201d and all that. And I still believe in American exceptionalism, in the idea that our nation, founded in Revolution by flawed men, can still become a \u201cMore Perfect Union\u201d. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
But the \u201cperfecting\u201d is taking a hell-of-a-long time. Maybe it\u2019s the \u201cMedicare thing\u201d, the idea that at sixty-five, I may no longer see a time when we will be a Nation without strife. I am confident that the United States will be better, but right now all I see is it moving backwards not forwards. I\u2019m not so sure how long it will take to change direction again \u2013 maybe beyond my Biblical three score and twelve (that\u2019s only seven more years). <\/p>\n\n\n\n
We, as a nation, are marching firmly towards the past. We have a Supreme Court that is turning the control over a women\u2019s body to state governments, many dominated by right-wing male legislators only interested in pursuing their own wealth. The Court is doing the same with the rights of what will soon by the majority of our Nation, those of color. And state by state, the white minority is consolidating power. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
The contrived controversy over \u201cCritical Race Theory\u201d, created by the right-wing \u201cthink-tank\u201d the Manhattan Institute, has convinced millions of parents their children are unable to \u201chandle\u201d the sins of their fathers. Just a question: how can we become a \u201cmore perfect union\u201d without reckoning with the imperfections of the past? Ignoring those flaws, is of itself Un-American. But don\u2019t dare teach children about those imperfections \u2013 or allow them to express their own views. And they called us liberals \u201csnowflakes\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The idiocracy that determines it\u2019s better to ignore a pandemic than follow the science is not just frustrating, it\u2019s immoral. We are quietly approach 930,000 deaths from Covid, \u201cthe World\u2019s Number One\u201d as a former President would say, and are so divided that nothing will stop us from reaching a million. I\u2019m reminded of the movie Meatballs, <\/em>so many Americans are chanting with Bill Murray, \u201cIt just doesn\u2019t matter, It just doesn\u2019t matter.\u201d They are resigned to incapacity, and now are using trucks as the weapons of “FREE-DOM”. They just deny. They go on with their lives \u2013 those that don\u2019t die or aren\u2019t affected by the losses.<\/p>\n\n\n\n There is a commercial for the travel site, Kayak, where they make fun of families split by \u201cKayak-deniers\u201d. It\u2019s far too soon to be funny, and far too real. There are too many families divided and friendships lost, to trivialize by commercializing the division. I resent the ad, and I resent that it probably amuses folks on all sides of our polarized society. But, like it or not, it does symbolize our national septicity. <\/p>\n\n\n\n I didn\u2019t like the \u201cin vogue\u201d movie, Don\u2019t Look Up, <\/em>either, because I don\u2019t like nihilistic stories without hope. I didn\u2019t like the popular Netflix <\/em>series, House of Cards<\/em> for the same reason. That\u2019s never been my view of life. But there is a whole lot of \u201cnot looking up\u201d going on around here, a focus on internal life to the exclusion of everything else. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Here in Ohio, a politician took a $60 million bribe from an energy company to get the state to pay for a failing nuclear plant. And now, two years later, the politician hasn\u2019t been tried for his crime. He\u2019s even thinking of running for office again. And the company is still getting paid by the state. \u201cDon\u2019t Look Up\u201d, <\/em>you might see that even the thieves in government are out in the open. They are brazen, and guiltless, and Teflon.<\/p>\n\n\n\n It doesn\u2019t seem like there\u2019s much \u201cbending towards justice\u201d yet.<\/p>\n\n\n\n It\u2019s easy to think \u2013 well, just wait for another decade, when the Mitch McConnell\u2019s and Donald Trump\u2019s and, as my younger friends would say, the \u201cold white dudes\u201d will be dead. But the thrust of our current universe seems to be going in the wrong direction, one of division instead of unity, ignorance instead of knowledge, hate instead of faith. The arc of the moral universe looks suspiciously like an ellipse. <\/p>\n\n\n\n I know optimism will return. I\u2019m subbing in a school, and down the hallway I hear the voice of Dr. Martin Luther King, speaking that last night in Memphis. He went to the \u201cmountain top\u201d, and saw the \u201cPromised Land\u201d. After all he had been through, he still had faith in America – the arc bending towards justice. If he could be optimistic in 1968, how can I be less in 2022.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Don’t Look Up<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
Geometry<\/h3>\n\n\n\n