"Crying is all right in its way while it lasts. But you have to stop sooner or later, and then you still have to decide what to do.”
How to begin the entries of 2021? The traditional, ubiquitous greeting of "Happy New Year" is grotesquely out of place at the moment. With public unrest resulting from endless COVID lockdowns and restriction of our liberties, plus widespread distrust over the presidential election results culminating in yesterday's assault on our Capitol, the wheels seem to be coming off our society. So what is there to say?
After giving it considerable thought, I've arrived at some conclusions necessary for moving forward into our murky future with any hope of national recovery and peace. These measures are obvious to me. You may or may not agree, but for whatever they may be worth, they appear below:
- Perpetrating violence against people, property, or our institutions is wrong. It doesn't matter whose banner is flying over it. It must stop, and it must be punished.
- The legacy media must start reporting the news factually, not emotionally or ideologically.
- Election law reform with vigilant enforcement procedures should be the first order of business in every state legislature.
- Accurate and practical voter identification processes, consistently applied, should be an urgent and imperative national priority.
- Social media activity must be minimized. There are plenty of more productive things for all of us to do. Read a book, listen to music, go for a walk, call a friend, work on a hobby. For your own peace of mind, and to start starving the electronic beast, avoid the hate-filled cesspools online.
- People must be free to speak their minds without fear of harm or retribution. This is no longer the United States of America if we can't do that.
- People must be free to earn a living and to support and protect their families and homes. This is no longer the United States of America if we can't do that.
- Perhaps this is no longer the United States of America as we have known it. If it is not, we--not Big Tech, not the media, not academia, not the courts, not Hollywood, not Congress, but WE--as American citizens--must decide what's next.
Hand-wringing won't cut it. Action is needed. I offer a few personal examples: in June I canceled my cable television service; in November I left Facebook and Twitter; this week I signed the petition to recall California Gov. Gavin Newsom. I know I need to do much more, but that's a start.
It's your move.
