I don't recognize my country anymore. There are so many reasons why I view it as broken, it's difficult to know where to start. Although I try to hope we are just going through a rough patch, I fear that perhaps we are beyond repair.
"Vaccine Passports" are a hot topic. But don't you dare mention Voter ID. Never mind that no one can buy so much as a glass of beer without showing official identification. Don't even consider that legitimate voting is the bedrock of our system of government. The very utterance of "Voter ID" is, wait for it--racist.
Then there is critical race theory. Although I've managed to miss this for sixty-plus years, apparently "White Supremacy" has been ripping the nation to shreds--along with white privilege and systemic racism. One musn't question how rampant all of these scourges are across the country, even if you've never participated in or witnessed them. I have yet to hear a cogent definition of any of these terms in relation to current events, but that's beside the point. If you object, challenge, or even raise a question about them, you are--racist.
I heard a Black radio host today ask the question, "Would we be where we are today if George Floyd hadn't resisted arrest?" He quickly added, "No, we can't ask that." To do so, even for a Black man, would be--racist. It would fit another recent crisis, "hate speech," and the Cancel Culture cops would come for him and his job. So much for the First Amendment.
"Big Tech," the wannabe Communist dictators, are a whole other story that I prefer to ignore. Readers may recall that, after the 2020 election, I shut down my Facebook and Twitter accounts. I'm here to tell you that leaving social media is not fatal. Furthermore, quality of life is much improved; I don't miss a nanosecond of the propaganda-spewing time-suckers.
Of course, we have the huge problem of the lying taxaholic in the White House. Biden makes me think of a Mad King George/Caligula hybrid. He's demented, destructive, and dangerous. He's also on an egomaniacal power trip, complete with autocratic leanings, beyond anything I've ever seen. If implemented, his "vision" for the country will take us down, hard. And on the immigration crisis, he is criminally insane. Open borders combined with a closed mind leads to a bleak future. I can now see myself living in a scene out of The Book of Eli as a very real possiblity.
How about the pronoun wars? That's one controversy I can settle quickly. I'm a female. My husband was a male. I have male and female children, grandchildren, and siblings. I had a female mother and a male father. Likewise for my grandmothers and grandfathers. There are males, and there are females--he and she, him and her. Anyone who doesn't like me using those descriptors can kiss my lily-white ankle.
Let's not forget the ongoing Covid restrictions--as if we could, right? When is the obnoxious little Dr. Ouchie, with his trusty double mask, going to go away and let us live our lives? Ever? Will we ever be "allowed" to have a conversation with someone less than six feet away? Will our children continue to be smothered by masks on airplanes indefinitely? Will they ever be "allowed" back in school full time?
My most pressing question is this: how long are the millions of grassroots Americans going to tolerate being abused, insulted, ordered around, condescended to, controlled and robbed of our freedoms? The answer, I believe, will play a large part in how--or if--our broken nation can heal.
