Oh wow. Whence goeth my country? If it even remains my country. For that matter, what is a "country"? It's a term, essentially political, which delineates a grouping of a population of shared goals and ethos, structured around a national charter and/or guide, and contains within a population loyal to it and guided by freely elected officials who place country and people above personal needs and desires. At best, these leaders are moral, intelligent and caring. They do not advocate violence nor extremism.
All within are to be treated as equals with shared rights. Commonalities are stressed and differences are approached with tact and goals of compromise and mutuality, with no one granted the right to be superior to any other group nor above the law, and certainly not the leaders who are expected to be role models for the nation's population. Rights are to be equal for all and are not commodities to be granted or withdrawn as per the whims of a leader. It is to be an entity of strong shared values, confident enough to accept and even celebrate differences which meld together in a shared ethos and new personality. Ergo - 'America'. Ergo 'American'. Ergo the 'United States of America'.
Those terms, their meanings and implications, are now besieged and beset by the those who would radically change them. The very air is permeated with the shouts, rants and tirades and it becomes heated, overheated. It sears all that makes contact and enormously reshapes the nation in an atmosphere streaked with negativity and threads of anger and violence. Suddenly the terms America, the United States of America, American, come to signify other than former understandings and aspirations. Most certainly, not in a good manner.
The question before us, the decision before us, is existential. Who are we? Who do we aspire to be? Or have we lost those aspirations? Rather than reach for the stars we now delve deep into the mud. Why? Can we not talk with each other anymore? Instead. we shout at each other. We adopt more and more extreme policies and accept and internalize absurdities. Once we would have recognized the falsehoods which we now swear to be truths. Miss and disinformation proliferate, and we accept the degradation of others where once we would have forcefully rejected that ugliness. Our anger and exaggerated differences, the fear generated, are at such peaks we have never had before. Why? Why has this come to be? Why did we allow this to be?
The fault lies within our own selves. It was neither the water, nor the air, nor the food, nor the chemicals, nor the. ozone layer. It was us. Somehow, somewhere and some time we just opened a door wide and in trooped negativities of all sizes and consequences. We bought into those negativities and are continuing to do so at present. As for the future- not boding well, is it?
We allowed clearly incompetent people to be elected to office. We allowed them to chase out those legislators who had courage, morality, who did not place their own whims and desires above all else. We allowed for a corrupted partisan justice system, especially within the courts. And thus, here we are today. Once a world leader, we now behave as a fourth-class nation, shockingly, unbelievably, discussing a plan book, detailed and specific, as to how to shed this country's democracy, exchanging it for one of totalitarian rule! The greatest democracy ever and well ...once upon a time. However, the ending does not seem to be "lived happily ever after".
Once there was a concept of a melting bowl but that proved to be too demanding and not necessarily totally positive. People must not forget their origin and history. We must not melt all individuality and all heritage. Instead, we should be that salad mix in a well-constructed bowl with room for individuality and sharing and mixing, the taste enhanced by the tastes of others in that same bowl. A whole capable of managing its separate pieces and those separate pieces wanting, able, to form a whole while retaining their individuality. Once we were such.
Now we are not. We have strayed far, way too far. from our original foundation. We have discarded the good, the gold and silver, and adopted only the rust beneath. Perhaps we thought we were oh so sophisticated in dissing our own country to that extent. I don't know; I guess I am not wise enough to know but someone out there must know. What I do know is that we must take control of our own selves and retrain our eyes and ears and minds to hear and know the truth. To be able to separate the trash from the valued. It will take hard work to come back from so far, but we must try. And we have to begin without further delay. G-d help us if we refuse to change, to do better, or at least try to do better. We must at least attempt to reinforce and deserve this verse: "America, America, G-d shed His Grace on thee."
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Hey, Yitzy, think this is at all possible? I am not very sure of that, but I will have hope and remember that there are good people remaining on earth. We could use a few more. ASAP
Love you, sweet boy,
Always and forever. Always and forever.
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