Is it truly that time or is it past the time when we need to or are forced to say goodbye to the world as we knew it. As we still know it in some ways. But as we in great magnitude cannot imagine in a world of the near future. What is ugly from the past has returned. Too often refreshed and reinvigorated by the nastiness of the world of today. To it is added new scrolls of hate put forth and unrolled by those who should know better, who in fact do know better. but could care less. Why? Because that is not where their heads and minds and hearts are. Their souls are already blackened to a point of no return. They revel in the muck and filth of their hate, and of their willingness to break a country which once stood at the head of the world.
Thus, it might indeed be the right time for those signs of mourning. For sure, there is very little to take joy in, to see positive signs. The past, the signs of the past and recent today, which had pointed to and led us in the right directions, which we mostly followed willingly, perhaps even eagerly at times, are now gone. They have been absorbed into the negative and nasty proliferating atmosphere of current times. Too few have caught on in sufficient time to make it easier to turn it around. We denied it. We refused to see it or to hear the words of ugliness spew forth from our misfit leaders.
And so, we watch and wait. Will there be any hero to ride in on a white horse to save us? I doubt it, though Bonnie Tyler's song of needing a hero is quite apt for the times. We need all of us, all the standard issue people of the world to decide on their own that they are the movers and shakers; they are the ones who are to determine the fates of all. There is no default move here, for absence merely adds to the weight and complexity of the problem. Perhaps we need to stream the movies of old, the TV series, which though not perfect, did underline the principles we upheld as positive, open and welcoming. Clear white hats and black hats. When and why did we think we had outgrown them, that we had become too sophisticated to live by and uphold them?
This nation worked so hard to rid itself of old-world faults and fallacies. We passed laws for equality and moved forward when they weren't enough. We pursued justice and made great efforts to share that justice. We fought against the corruption within governments. Where nepotism favoritism had no place. And here we are, 2026, and governments at all levels are rife with corruption, with favoritism. With the power of bribery. With whom you know. And not what you know, what you can contribute.
We have politicians who have aged out. Do they see it only in others and not in themselves? We have leaders who have passed over the border into dementia, into physical and mental deterioration. But we refuse at will to acknowledge it.
We have shattered the dreams of those such as Horatio Alger who went from rags to riches. For those who went from log cabin to White House. Or those who stood in front of the nation that they had led to independence and refuse the crown. He said, we had enough of monarchs. We were to be a democratic, independent nation.
Why today do we have those who seek the Crown? Who have already crowned themselves in their own minds. Who have taken upon themselves the privileges of rank and royalty. Coining currency with their faces imprinted. Placing their name and face where it definitely does not belong, with no right to be there. Why have our laws been flouted by the very ones who should be upholding them? Standing firm for them. For this nation. For the people of this nation. To enable dreams to come true. To enable the have nots to make their way up, to better educate their children. To have better lives. Why do we now, rather than welcoming immigrants who enrich this nation turn upon them. Jack boots and awful warehouses of humans.
I cannot answer these questions. I do not understand why these circumstances have made their way into our lives. All I know is that it is ugly. It is outlining a world where nobody looks after and out for the little guy.
We have a situation where freedom of speech, freedom of thought are in perilous stance. When the head of government meddles in the media of the nation, threatens them and forces them to do as he wishes, as he wills, we are not in a good place. When the appointees of this administration are absolutely incompetent. Have roles as Baa, Baa Black Sheep. We are not in a good place. When unqualified people are appointed to positions where they know not what to do and engage in that which harms the people, danger is blasting us loud and clear. When we have lost the courage and the righteousness to uphold that which should be upheld and turn aside from that which should not be - where do we go from here?
When we celebrate those who have brought AI online into our lives allowing, even encouraging nasty situations. When the evil residing within people is able to appear and grow quite ugly roots into the lives of people, even to the point of despair and suicide, the question is why? Why have we now reached a point where children commit suicide because they are being bullied online. Why have we reached the point where scientists are warning us that these ever-increasing AI programs are able to and wanting to and even perhaps wishing to send forth horrible facts and instructions. How to create nuclear bombs? How to take pathogens, insert them into genetic material and create epidemics with no cure. It is there. It is there for us to see. It is there for us to know. But we do not.
We have lost our way. We have lost our ethics. We have lost all that made us Americans. Citizens in, of, and to the world. Is it any wonder that curators of museums of art, of life, feel they are responding to the "sad state of the world. Full of darkness and strife. And recurring collective trauma".
This is the world we have bequeathed unto ourselves.
Are we proud?
