God Bless America
It doesn’t take very long to trace back the “where did he/she go wrong” when you meet someone whose life has taken an unfortunate turn. Did they have positive role models? Were they “included” in activities with friends growing up? Were their parents and the parents of their friends proactive in monitoring their behavior and activities? We look at these unfortunate instances and simply think to ourselves, “Well, no wonder.”
As Americans, we can do this same thing. Land of the free and home of the brave – on our worst day we are more entitled than most in the world. We have a wealth of opportunity, entertainment, FOOD. Aside from those stricken by weather disasters or those who endured the effects of 9/11, Americans (from the best off to the most meager of incomes) have lived more of a charmed life than our worldwide counterparts.
I read somewhere long ago that even a successful family business will fail in its third generation if not careful. That is because the third generation is far enough removed from the memory of how hard those who started it had to work to get where they are. They didn’t endure the struggle. They merely reaped the rewards.
Sounds familiar?
What I fear we are now witnessing is that same philosophy exponentially. Today’s American does not remember the struggle of those whose sexual orientation was considered so taboo that they dare not reveal it to anyone for fear of taunting, exclusion or physical violence launched against them. There is no memories of watching your classmates be pulled away from you after graduation almost as if they had vanished from the face of the earth to be taken to a land on the other side of the world to fight for a people they have barely read about in school. There is no need to write letters to communicate with those so far away hoping that thoughts are carried to them and received. We pick up the phone and call literally anyone in a second and almost loose our minds when we are unable to reach them. EVERYTHING and EVERYONE should be right at our disposal.
We have lived the life of a relay race.
What does that mean? Think about it. Four people team up and become one to enter a relay race. The runner who takes on the first leg of the race sets the tone for the rest. If he/she is really fast, has trained really hard, done everything he/she is supposed to have done (and the stars align in their favor) the lead will be substantial by the hand off of the baton to the second leg. That person then runs with all their might to not only maintain the lead but increase it. But the third hand-off, the momentum has built to a staggering lead….but the third leg decides that is still not enough. He/she runs as fast as they can not looking back to see the lead that has built up. All the while, however, the fourth leg awaits the hand off. They cannot help but see the enormous lead that has amassed at the hands (or feet) of their teammates. The pressure is off. There is no stopping this win now. Or is there? Should the fourth leg of the team decide that this is “in the bag” the race will, in fact, be lost because everyone must hold up his/her end of the workload in order to win. The fourth runner, seeing this race as an opportunity to rest on the laurels of the others, has miscalculated the strategy and cost the team EVERYTHING.
THAT’S WHERE WE ARE AS AMERICANS!!!
We have completely ridden the coattails of those who have gone before us and built a great business, a great society, a great nation and have decided that we are entitled to all that they have provided us – free of charge.
WE ARE WRONG.
I am missing 9/11. I know how that sounds – but think back. After being absolutely stunned that this type of attack could possibly occur on American soil, after the shock of taking in what we have seen but not been able to believe, we rallied. We flew our American flags on our cars, in our yards. We pulled together. On those subsequent days not one person cared if we were white, black, gay, straight, female, male, transgender, rich or poor – we were AMERICANS. That was all we cared about.
In 19 short years (or less) that is GONE. Our men and women in the military still get it because they understand what it means to put their lives in the hands of their fellow soldiers and leaders. But we, the people, do not. We are now consumed with pointing fingers at those who wear masks or don’t convinced that someone else is responsible for our lot in life or worse yet, our inconvenience.
We want to be reassured that anything we want we can have. Anything we do is okay and anyone we hurt will forgive us.
THEY WON’T.
The whole of America is fed up with the inconvenience of the pandemic. We resent being told to wear masks to protect ourselves (and others) from an illness we can neither see nor subscribe to. Our leaders cannot agree with each other or their opponents on what to do, how to do it or for how long. The only thing we know with any certainty is that any pharmaceutical company within ear shot of a newscast is working round the clock to cash in on the next vaccine to cure what ails us.
American is made up of people who are begging for $15 per hour to earn a wage they can attempt to live on while billionaires whine to each other that 28% tax is simply outrageous. We keep in touch on social media until the gatekeepers of those platforms decide we have uttered something that they deem “harmful”. We have been elevated, talked down to, used and abused, shaked and baked and are now three weeks away from an election that has morphed into a shouting match between school yard kids and their friends. Except – while the squabble in the yard is going on, we have friends watching from their homes who have no food; or no home.
There are larger issues here than whether or not Nancy Pelosi looks commanding enough in her role to glean the power she wants so desperately to yield. And ironically, she would yield it if she took care of those people she so vehemently claims to represent.
We’re Americans! All of us. We should act like it. And if this is the new version of acting like Americans – we need to stop and revert back to a time when we deserved to be.