I try to avoid political discussion in any of my posts, whether blog posts, email, or even responses to things on Facebook or elsewhere. Why? Because our country was founded on freedom. We all have a right to make choices, to have positions that may sometimes be in conflict, to express views with only reasonable limitation. Yet, things seem to have changed. And maybe there is a need to sometimes look at how politics affect our daily lives. I can still be friends with those who hold opposing views. When I look at our country today, I ask myself if, as a country, “Have we lost our way?”
As a baby boomer, I suspect my parents, and their generation, asked the same question in the late 60’s and early 70’s. Things were certainly in were far different at that time than they were in the 40’s when all healthy adults were willing to make great sacrifices in the safety and security of our country and the world. As the baby boomers grew into adulthood, dodging the draft became acceptable, the use of drugs became common, and the hippie fashion became the trend. It was far different from what was acceptable as our parents moved into the world of adults.
The questions today are, in large part, not the result of young people rebelling against the past but instead seem centered around so-called adults who have not grown up. People who seem to believe that the things we have learned as a country over the past two hundred years plus are no longer important.
Differences are no longer acceptable. The ability to work and live together no longer have value. Instead of focusing on why our country has been viewed as a model for much of the world, little is of no value other than wealth or riches. Opposing views are not respected and systems which have served us well only exist to be destroyed.
While the downward spin has been slowly creeping into our lives for many years, possibly beginning in the 60’s, the beginning of the media named pandemic. During those years, much information was spread with limited research or analysis. We saw jobs lost, families broken apart, friendships destroyed, and nameless other things that were the result of individual choices – get a test or don’t get a test, take an injection, rushed to the market, or trust your personal resistance to disease, wear a mask or don’t wear a mask. These things and many more drove wedges between individuals, families, even medical professionals. Yes, there were deaths during the pandemic but the simple was to classify any death was to say it was the result of the disease in question.
Today things have spiraled even further. During our last presidential election, we had one candidate who refused, and still refuses, to accept the results of any election where he is not the winner. The opponent was a candidate who had never received a single vote in a primary election. Many chose not to vote or voted on the lesser of two evils rather than a candidate’s qualifications.
The result – much the same as the end of the pandemic. No one seems to accept that there is nothing wrong with differing opinions; that negotiation can provide better results than permanent lines drawn in the sand can never be crossed; that loyalty to a political party is far more important than representing the average person in our country. We have leadership, and I use the term very loosely here, that believes the only way to lead is through dictation, not working with others to achieve success. Leaders who are willing, and have voiced, that disagreement with them should result in censorship, loss of rights, and even banishment or jailing in foreign countries. Leaders who search for ways to ignore our Constitution, our laws, and the courts which were created to resolve differences in interpretation and enforcement of these laws.
So, we now have a leader who uses things like executive orders, bullying, and even threats to achieve his desires and ignore the legislative branch of our government. A billionaire who has been given largely uncontrolled power as a so-called advisor even though there are clearly conflicts of interest in the advice he gives (and someone who was neither elected nor did his role receive any review). All the members of one party have decided they will line up and accept this leader’s actions and decisions regardless of how stupid they may look or how their constituents feel. The other party does just the opposite opposing everything with no real justification.
When I step back and look at things today, it seems that we do not have leaders. Instead, we have people in high positions who are acting like three-year-old children playing in an expensive sandbox who will pick up their toys and run home if they don’t get their way. So, I return to my original question, “Have we lost our way?”
During the first, we were on the border between snow and ice. At our home, southwest of St. Louis, we spent the first two days of the initial storm as a target for freezing rain and sleet. Only the final night gave us some of the snow that had been seen north of us. As a result, we had a layer of ice on the ground, on streets, and on driveways which was then covered by snow. A few days later, another blast of winter weather added several additional inches of snow.
There, and like in this photo from Austria, we had much more snow than in Arkansas, but I don’t remember it ever bringing things to a standstill. Instead, communities and drivers there seemed to be prepared for snow and took it in stride. I saw this in multiple assignments in Europe and in the U.S.
While geese were sometimes seen, ducks were far more common. This has changed over time as has the number of waterfowl seen passing through each year. If you compare the Claypool photo from 1956 and it to these from 2013, you can still see large numbers of waterfowl on the Flyway, just different types.
An Old Man's Thoughts, Memories, & Opinions 