WHERE ARE WE?

     How many times have we asked that question when driving or walking somewhere? How many times have we stopped and asked ourselves where the heck we were in whatever we were doing or thinking? Sometimes we had an answer and at other times, well, that's another story.
     So, where are we now? It is a question that most Americans must ask themselves, right now. Where exactly are we on the map of the world, on a map of our personal lives? If you are like me, then you are probably just as confused as to how you reached this point. Surely at this stage in life I should know where I am, what I stand for, and what my country stands for and means to me. Surely, and yet, not there, am I and are you?
     Never did I think I would be so invested in politics at this stage of the game. Yet what can be done if it seems as if the country has fallen off the tracks, or flipped off the trestles into the chasm below? Surely there is something that can be done, must be done to rescue it and its population. Is there? Where are we exactly on that issue? Any answers, anyone, someone?
     We were not a perfect country, not at all, but we tried. We made errors and still do, but always there was a willingness to listen, to think, among enough people, so that progress could and would be made. We were ripped apart at the inception of this country, with American Tories, loyal to the King, moving back to England or to Canada. We then progressed, not always smoothly, people having to give some of their stubborn independence to the country, to strengthen it, but once again, we were ripped apart by the Civil War with its horrendous loss of life. 
     We never did fully recover from that war but made great progress as we grew, as the years passed, even as terrible tragedies still took place. We helped immigrants and the poor, built hospitals, but lied to the Native Americans and still denied full rights to African Americans. I do hate that term, for are we not all Americans or future Americans and why must we separate ourselves by whence our ancestors originated? Is it that I am still too naive to think that this is possible and actually had been achieved to a large degree? Where did it go? What happened?
     People are always on the watch, some employing that 360, 365 attitude, but for the wrong reasons. Like children watching to see that the parents are fair to each of them, that teacher has no pet, that all get what ALL get, and they worry. What have they missed out on? So they imported workers and then treated them like dirt. Irish, Italian, Chinese, Japanese, Jews from all countries, but especially eastern Europe - all were on the receiving end at one time or another.
     Though we did make strides in the right direction, what happened? Well, too many people thought they were lost, thought they were given incorrect directions to make it through life, to receive their fair share, right or wrong. Too many people had vastly differing perceptions of reality, and along came those always waiting there in the dark, waiting to take advantage of unrest, of fear, of an inborn prejudice, of a lack of education, of a willingness to be convinced that someone, somewhere, had the answers. We lost our way and when the question was asked, "Where are we?", we neither heard the proper directions or decided to ignore them and go along the same dead end road we were on.
     And so here we are. We made it through the nation shattering years of the Vietnam War and the protests and thought we came together as a nation, spurred, unfortunately by 9/11. But now, now we are in a worse place than ever. We are split into deep divisions and I wonder, I really do, if these differing factions can ever reunite. Singing G-d Bless America one day a year and then going back inside and having at each other is just so wrong, so hypocritical!
      We have a man definitely lacking in brain power, a man of nasty traits and rampant hatreds, a man who thinks, as does a toddler, that the world revolves around him. An overgrown toddler who delights in sitting and tweeting the equivalent words of a schoolyard bully. Worse than that, the signposts of the roads are broken. They have fallen down on the job, neither lighting up the road nor giving proper directions and seem to quiver before the breath of that giant toddler in DC. All the while, we, the people riding on this road, are falling into muck alongside or struggling through, trying to escape the quicksand that is pulling us down into a place we should not be.
     We have fallen into the habit of defining people as "others", dehumanizing 'them' so it then becomes okay to trash them, to imprison them, to mistreat children and parents, to forget that 'them', they, are people with the same needs, vices and virtues as we have. But we have forgotten and actually have people quite willing to be the callous guards, following orders, 'doing their jobs'. This makes me shudder and so should you. It is a miserable dead end road that we are traveling and where are we is answered with - on the road to hell.
     We have lost, somewhere along our travels, lately, the caring for the weaker elements of society, the needy, those who need just a helping hand to get on their feet, to feed their children, to find a roof over their heads, to educate their children. We have lost that, regretfully so. There is hope though, that proper mapmakers and charting are returning and we will once again know where we are and which is the best way of reaching our final destination.
    My country has lost its way. There are people out there who will yell, with spit flying, that old shout to "love it or leave it". Well, loving a country means wanting it to be the best it can be, the best it should be, hence the activism, hence the efforts and the struggles to keep us going forward, positively, along American roads, rather than poor imitations of roads of other dictators, of haters, of pathetic people who have lost their humanity. They, too, need a helping hand to come back to the proper road and keep off the filthy misdirections of others.
     We all need to learn to let go of the hatred, of the anger and become Americans once more, the people of the Lady of the Harbor. If there are troubles, well, troubles shared are troubles resolved, and we have forgotten that. Generosity is better than meanness and nastiness. One makes one feel better and the other simply amplifies the garbage within. So where are we, folks? Where? And where are we going?