We know things long before we realize them.
Like the hair raising on the back of our necks, we can feel something is terribly wrong.
We turn on the news and we hear a relentless stream of conflict globally, nationally, regionally, and locally.
We walk past a storefront window, and we notice the look on our face is a grimace. What am I so upset about?
The tension we are experiencing is not our over-active imaginations, it is the disquieting realization that life as we have known it is breaking down.
Consider what is left of the American Dream…
To work hard to obtain a high-quality education or vocation, so we can contribute valuable services to society in exchange for compensation sufficient to own a home, save for rainy days, education for the kids, retirement, take quality vacations, and buy the goods and services we desire to provide for ourselves and our families.
This aspiration used to be normal and accessible for most Americans.
Or the American experiment…
“Government of the People, By the People, For the People…”1
The first open immigration nation…
“Give me your tired, your poor, your huddled masses yearning to breathe free.”2
Land of the free, home of the brave.
America…the indispensable nation.3
And even the current Presidential Election…
Our top three choices:
Democratic nominee – Vice President Kamala Harris
Republican nominee – Former President Donald Trump
Independent candidate – Robert F. Kennedy Jr.
The only topic they all agree on is the unconditional support of Israel’s on-going genocide of Palestinians in Gaza.
As Senior Airman Aaron Bushnell said before self-immolating:
“This is what our ruling class has decided will be normal.”
The bough is breaking, and the established institutions will fall.
The task for each of us is to decide what new society shall emerge out of the ashes.
1 From the “Gettysburg Address” written by Abraham Lincoln
2 From “The New Colossus” by Emma Lazarus
3 Popularized by Secretary of State Madeleine Albright