It Can’t Happen Here!

      But it did. Maybe not like the Sinclair Lewis novel of 1935 though just as scary. If the numbers are to be believed 71 million people voted for the incumbent. This was America at rock bottom. We have no choice but to do better. We face a global pandemic, record income inequality, and an economic prospect of a country that spent the last four years growing by a minuscule 1%. That's not enough to create the jobs which pay people a living wage. Please don't confuse this with the stock market which is not the economy. The economy is comprised of the majority of people in America who buy things and offer their services for hire. Mostly, people are finding low paying jobs without benefits in the Gig Economy. 

 

     The Middle Class of America has been eviscerated by mountains of student loan and credit card debts. They have known this is happening for years and their despair can bre seen in rising rates of suicide and opioid use. The Middle Class can't do much about it. This realization is contributing to a mental health crisis which was already bad because of Covid-19.

         

      It's easy to see and acknowledge our mistakes of the last few decades. How we have squandered our wealth on foreign wars and trying to be the world's policeman. How we have under-funded our schools, our infrastructure (roads, bridges, and tunnels) has been left to rot, and trust in one another is at an all-time low. 

     I'm not calling for a new isolationism. The world is too connected for that. What we do need is a new humility. America was a great country and could be again. Though it will need a lot of help from a great many sources. We can start by taking better care of the planet. Here in America, California is still on fire and the eastern part of the country is being overwhelmed by unprecedented storms which tax our abilities to recover. The kind of people we need are those like the ones who run into raging forest fires or violent storms. Our problems will require tremendous amounts of sacrifice and a kind, empathetic souls to solve them. Be part of the solution.