HEARING

 Hearing plays an important role in the history of our planet. This 'hearing' also involves reading, listening carefully, openness, and sheer common sense. Unfortunately, most pay little or no attention to what is being said, so firmly fixed are they in their determination to be heard over all other voices. Replay the iconic "Can you hear me?" ad. The answer would have to be no, certainly for the population of this troubled country of ours. This is not a new phenomenon, 'merely' the growth of it, its strength, its possibility morphing into a probability - if we do not hitch up the nation's pants and get to work to save it. And us.

Here are some relevant figures and words that might poke a hole in the blase attitudes of so many, too many. No particular order.

"10 key variables, such as population, industrial output and persistent pollution, and determined our business-as-usual mentality will spark a decline of economic growth within the next decade. 

However, the data revealed an even bleaker future – our world could experience a total societal collapse by 2040.

A total societal collapse would mean an abrupt decline in quality of life, food production, industrial output and ultimately the human population." 

"nearly 190,000 crossing the border just last month and expectations that over one million will"

"two-thirds of Republicans in the South favor seceding from the United States while nearly half of Democrats in the Pacific region and almost 40 percent in the Northeast say the same, Support for secession is also considerable among independents in the Midwest and Great Lakes regions, where 43 percent say they would favor breaking away and forming their own country.

Half of independents in the South also favor secession while 43 percent of Republicans in the Rocky Mountain states share the same view."

“We’re going to put a ring of steel around this city and the Nazis aren’t getting in.” (Note, this is about DC in 2020.)

Milley said Trump preached “the gospel of the Führer” in pushing the big lie. “believed Trump was stoking unrest, possibly in hopes of an excuse to invoke the Insurrection Act and call out the military.” This is a Reichstag moment,” 

Read enough? Have a sense of the feelings that roil the very air we breathe in this country? Like it or not, we are no longer a united country, united states, for we have lost our way. I hate to say so, but I will, in great sadness. Told ya' so. Despite people telling me I was nuts, over the top, too pessimistic - told ya' so indeed. Wish I had been wrong. Wish the words of One More Day from Les Miz did not echo, asking if we could hear the voices of the people shouting. Shouting for the  things we need to be shouting about today, but are tragically lost in the furor and clamor of political power and the ignoring of the true needs of a troubled country and world.

People today all around the world are often at a loss for the basic needs of a person - shelter, food, clean water, and a hope for a better future. There is a growing decline in the acceptance of the idea that all people are deserving of rights, of fair treatment, of safety and security. Here in  the USA, we, in the form of a backwards thinking GOP desperate to regain and keep and wield power, stands in the way of all chance of bipartisanship. A country that could possibly begin to turn the fates in a different direction or at least at a slower speed, enabling us to perhaps find the answers we so desperately need.

Instead, tragically, we have bitter wrangling, a Party that kowtows to a demented would be dictator, that attitude being unmasked by the former enablers, no denial in sight, just a deep and dark silence, a  refusal to condemn the "big lie", and leaving those of us with any sense at all, wondering, puzzled, as to why, when it was clear to all that he was falling into a crazed image of himself as dictator, restored to power through the military, a full and present danger to this country, why did his people support this? They are guilty, as guilty, perhaps more so, than those deluded rebels, insurrectionists all, who attacked the Capitol, threatening life and limb of any and all who stood in their way.

Why have we allowed national legislators to remain in office when they shout and espouse the beliefs of Nazis, of Fascism,  of race hatred, of ethnic hatred, of religious hatred, any hatred one can think of. Paul Gosar.  Taylor Greene. Lauren Boebert. Mo Brooks. Kevin McCarthy. Josh Hawley. And the list grows as others see that the power bases of these people grow. More haters flock to them, as they become emboldened and validated with and by their growing support at rallies. Rallies  which the former President, Trump, loves, where he speaks, perpetuating his Big Lies, over and over again.

Biden challenges the GOP - "Have you no shame?" Apparently not, as their thunderous silence deafens us. Apparently not, as he reminds us that the voter restrictions, and who gets to count the votes will determine our future. We are asked to stay vigilant, even as a brave, rare GOP member admits that Trump was and is a malignancy. Calls it like it is.

In his Inaugural Address, Joe Biden told the nation “I know that the forces that divide us are deep and they are real.” 

The existential question is whether we can overcome all this, remain a United States in name and fact, and find , stumble, walk, limp, grope, whatever, to the right path, restore faith in ourselves and our destiny, in the role we are meant to play in this world, the hope we must generate, the energy we must find, if we are to save all of us. All of what we are and what we are meant to be.

The whole world is watching.

The whole world is watching.