Breaking News???

 

August 13, 2021 – Common Dreams NewsCenter   ·         Afghan War’s Bitter End for US Was ‘Inevitable’ ·         Louisiana and Mississippi Health Systems on the Brink of Collapse ·         NOAA Says July was Hottest Month Ever Recorded ·         Bezos, Gates and Buffet own more wealth than the bottom half of the US population

 

These four headlines from Common Dreams describe our country and our world today, and it’s not a pretty picture. OK, so I wrote the 4^th one, but it’s a fact so widely known, it doesn’t merit a news story anymore.

 

Maybe Armageddon is approaching.  “No more water, the fire next time.” If so, it’s not coming from an angry god, unless of course you consider nature a god, but from human greed and stupidity. Oh, I repeat myself.

 

Our country, indeed our world, is faced with the gravest set of crises since … forever. This from someone who considers himself an optimist and was born during WW II.

 

So, what are our “leaders” doing. One set are busy denying that any crises exist (while quietly enriching themselves and their friends and, not so quietly, taking joy rides in space) and the other, while recognizing that the crises exist (well, to some extent… maybe… sort of… ) is too timid to begin to address them.

 

There are a few voices that speak out in the wilderness and they have begun to gather some momentum, and our hope is that it’s not too little, too late. But unless every sane person in this country starts screaming for change at the top of their lungs, we are in danger of stumbling into the abyss.

 

The last time the US (and much of the world) faced anywhere near this level of multiple crises, in the late 1930s, the “greatest generation” united to fend off fascism and in the process built an economy that lifted millions of Americans (and parts of the rest of the war-torn world) into the middle class. While the post war prosperity left many of our countrymen and women out and actively suppressed development of the Global South, it showed what was possible if people pulled together, and everyone contributed their fair share. Even the very rich paid taxes (top bracket around 90%) and Senator’s sons went off to fight.

 

All of that soon fell victim to two interrelated scourges – a economic system that promoted the massive accumulation of wealth and power on the part of a tiny minority and a state of permanent war and preparation for war. I have to wonder what would the soldiers who died on the beaches of Normandy and Anzio think if they came back and saw the carnage of the endless wars the US has waged over the last 70+ years, if they watched the fires burning across the globe due to global warming, if they observed the runaway inequality that allows two billionaires to fly off into space while many, many millions lack adequate health care, housing and even food in the richest country in history. I can't imagine they wouldn't question why they made the ultimate sacrifice.

 

It’s up to us to change this picture, so that our children and grandchildren will ALL have that better world which the “greatest generation” believed they were fighting for.

 

To be continued.