Today it would seem that our country is being pulled in every direction except together.
The media is raw, unforgiving and often hard to watch. It reports killing, rape, child porn, hateful and dangerous acts, fear and loathing for people of differing faiths, colors and nationalities, and more. Facts matter less than creating controversy. Even one of the problems is becoming an acceptable solution. Buy a gun.
Locally we have the distress of drugs, molested children, battered women, even the healthy discussion of politics is overwrought by a new President more interested in self aggrandizement than the health of the country.
That has resulted in a near powerless Democratic party and a divided Republican party – which is reflective of both the state and federal political landscape.
So what are we to think?
How are we to make decisions?
Is our world really falling apart?
The best way to look forward is sometimes to look back. In this case it might be instructive to look to the time when we were not inundated with the gory details of every illicit, illegal and improper thing… when the media did not have the capability of near instant communication.
The day the twin towers were hit by airplanes flown by scum bags, I was sitting in my office watching the whole scenario unfold in real time on my computer screen. I saw people jumping to their deaths from top floor windows. I saw heroes and fire trucks and dust rolling out of what was left of these giants of buildings. The images are embedded in my mind as though they were yesterday.
How do such things impact us as individuals or us as a society and nation?
Look at kids. There was a time when parents would stick their kids in front of a television and let them watch Mighty Mouse or Roy Rogers while they got some peace and quiet. Or they would send them outside to play. Today there is no Mighty Mouse, Roy Rogers is dead, and many kids don’t know what to do when they go outside. It’s not air conditioned, and there are bugs.
In fact kids today need the instant gratification of electronic games, social media, instant communication, or they are not part of their social network. They are taught how to use a computer to do math, not to do math.
I had dinner with one of the young people that I nurture. I could not tear her away from her phone and her incessant texting or whatever she was doing. So I texted her. Guess what. She responded, and we had a conversation by text message while sitting across from each other at the dinner table. I took her phone. Enough is enough.
So, back to our plight, in my opinion the world is not falling apart… yet. There is no more danger right now than ever. The difference is that we are still coming to grips with our insatiable desire to know everything at the exact moment it happens. We are victims of our own excesses and information overload. This leaves the door open for those who summarize and editorialize the news in their own biased terms. This reinforced, for the first time in our country’s history, more than half of our nation to vote for an old man, who has failed in every venture he has attempted, to run the country at his will.
Back in the day we hid our heads in the proverbial sand like an ostrich. We ignored how others were being treated, and did not care about their struggles, or about how many were pushed aside. Now, if we pay attention, we know.
We accept that these conditions are justified and have voted for an administration that makes monster conditions a reality for all of us. Hard working immigrants who have made a life here, older folks who are dependent on Social Security, hard working Americans dependent on Medicare and Medicaid, hungry children at lunch time, those who need assistance to further their education are all now being threatened by the new Administration under the guise of cutting taxes for the wealthy. And here we are.
Our new President is promising to use the Army to arrest and put more than a million undocumented immigrants into concentration camp facilities, as we did in our country during World War II to the Japanese, German, Italian, and Jewish immigrants. The proposed alternative is to send a million people to who knows where. No matter that these folks have been here for years, pay taxes, pay into Social Security and hold jobs that we do not have sufficient people to fill. Many of these people are fully assimilated into our country and care more about America than many Americans.
So, what do we do? For one thing, we could respect the fact that we live in a country that is supposedly a democracy, which means that everyone has the same right to make decisions at all levels of their lives – as opposed to giving away this right to an egomaniac. For another, we could accept those immigrants who we need to fill empty jobs, who want to earn their way to citizenship, who have invested their lives into having the good traits of American citizenry. Just as our grandparents and great grandparents of many of us came to this country and were accepted.
Democracies are built on compromise, negotiation and the sense that all of their citizens are due the same rights and respect. Our strength comes from knocking bullies and super rich wanna-be dictators down a peg or two – while having compassion for those in need.
When it comes to name calling, lying, and strategies that destroy our institutions, it is essential that we fight for our way of life, for stability, common sense and policies that pull us together – not tear apart the lives of others. It is requisite that we respect our institutions, bring a little praise to those elected officials who actually do a pretty good job, and stop the tearing apart of what we hold dear.
It is this fear and loathing of people who are not of our same skin color, religion, sexual orientation, age, income level, ethnicity, nationality, language or political persuasion that will destroy us. The truth is that it is the combination of all of these things which makes our nation great. It is also what makes life interesting.
After all Royer’s in Chambersburg sells more than white roses.
Bill Gindlesperger is a central Pennsylvanian, Dickinson College graduate, Pennsylvania System Of Higher Education (PASSHE) Governor, former Shippensburg University Trustee, awarded numerous patents, as well as Founder and Chairman of eLynxx Solutions. eLynxx provides cloud-software for automated sourcing and managing of mail marketing, swag, packaging, and all things print. He is a board member, campaign advisor, successful entrepreneur, published author and commentator. He can be reached at Bill.Gindlesperger@eLynxx.com.
