Every so often, I feel a need to write about something a bit more serious than “how my computer thwarted me today.” This is one of those moments. I guess that the recent passing of Former President George H. W. Bush got me to thinking about his vision for a “kinder, gentler America”.
Many of us like to think back to a bygone era, mostly fictional or a state of mind, when conditions were better and everyone was delightful. A hundred years ago or more, life must have been grand. Of course, for most families, children worked in factories for twelve hours a day, necessitating the creation of child labor laws. Education was really only for the upper income bracket, less than ten percent of Americans graduated from high school, and more than a third were functionally illiterate. We fought two world wars, but otherwise, the early 20thcentury was idyllic. Perhaps we could go back to the 1950’s as model time, a “golden age”, a post-war period when families were families, June and Ward Cleaver had the answer to every possible question, the middle class was growing, and life was indeed good. But wait – we were terrified of communists and practiced air raid drills in schools. Senator Joseph McCarthy was spreading a buckshot of fear across the country. We began the period known as the “Cold War”. Maybe not quite as blissful as we recall it. The ‘60’s would be better. Everyone was happy and exploring life to the fullest. Of course, we did have a presidential assassination, social unrest and activism for civil rights, war protests, university campuses in an uproar, and maybe the beginnings of widespread, serious drug use taking root. Japan was steadily taking over our industrial output. Ok, that’s not the rosy picture we remember.
The ‘70’s would be a dramatic improvement. Certainly Richard Nixon got us off to a good start – the war in Vietnam was winding down, oil was plentiful and inexpensive until . . . . . oh wait again. Iran wasn’t one of our better success stories. The ‘80’s and ‘90’s were surely a time of prosperity and growth. The Cold War ended, sort of. The old Soviet Union dissolved and became more like us, well. until Vladimir Putin came along. The Middle East was more volatile, countries in Eastern Europe, like Yugoslavia disappeared in an ugly manner, while others like Czechoslovakia simply divided. Pakistan and Afghanistan, the African continent, Columbia and Venezuela, the number of unsettled and unsettling places in the world continued to grow at an alarming rate. Americans had to be suspicious and fearful of so many countries, we just couldn’t keep up. And China has been taking over our industrial output.
The new century, the new millennium, would surely see that human beings have really got things together. Oh, never mind – September 11th happened. Acts of terror, school and mass shootings. Immigration increasingly became the new slavery. Just as people of color were going to run rampant over late 19thcentury America, immigrants would be moving in and taking over. They’re going to work hard at jobs that native-born Americans don’t want. They’re going to contribute to our society in ways we never imagined, rebuilding the American workforce and adding many new flavors to America’s cultural pallet. In fact, newly arrived Americans are helping significantly to make America great again – we just don’t see it because we’re so afraid of them. They’re going to be voting in elections, appearing on ballots, being elected to office, and running big parts of our government. And truly alarming, they’ll be doing it better than a lot of white folks.
So, what is happening us as a society? Why do we find that civil discourse is a problem? Why are we still grappling with diversity after all this time? After all, doesn’t everyone think like me? Folks on the extreme political spectrum seem to assume that they’re the majority view. Here’s a news flash: YOU’VE NEVER BEEN THE MAJORITY VIEW, EVER. Moderate, middle-of-the-road Americans are just too polite to tell you that your bigotry, your outdated views about gender, and your blatant acts of discrimination, bias, and entitlement are totally on the wrong side of history. You’ve become the Jefferson Davis of the 21stcentury, and your dreams of a new order firmly rooted in the past aren’t coming back any time soon. How could we elect a national leader that can’t stand in front of a microphone and tell us something, anything, that is truthful, accurate, and inspiring? Why do we tolerate an America that sees every issue through an “us-versus- them” prism, and we’ll do anything necessary to be “the winner”? When did we stop thinking in terms of the “land of the free and home of the brave”, and become “America – What’s In It For Me?”
I’m going to suggest a new motto for a new year. Let’s start to think more of “America for the Good of All of Us.” Let’s start to define or redefine the collective good rather than the selective good. Let’s stop identifying the other people that are to blame for our lot in life. And while we’re at it, let’s stop telling ourselves that anyone not like us is the cause of national decline, social decay, or our ultimate collapse. Let’s begin to identify some of the real issues about which we can do something. We can provide every young person that wants it with a college education. We can figure out what new employment opportunities could be for coal miners and factory workers. We can provide people in the service industries with a living wage. We can look for ways to provide every American with adequate, affordable health care and life-saving medications. We can surely find ways to protect ourselves without building walls around our borders or stockpiling firearms. And finally, we can stop worrying about being number one at everything and turn our attention to playing nicely with others in the world community.
I'm Thinking...No! 