The saddest aspect of life right now is that science gathers knowledge faster than society gathers wisdom.[1]
Our country is at a cross roads moment; that part of the play where we have to decide which path to take. We can understand, all of us, there needs to be a change. Everything is happening too fast and has gone too far, the level of acidity is too high, and the anger too intense. There has to be a resolution, much like a geological fault line has a resolution, normally violent and destructive.
Last week at a Worthington Ohio school board meeting protesters accused the members of being Nazis. Somehow, facemask mandates have become a national socialist ploy. This week anti mask protesters outside the high school made the comparison to communist China. In one week they went from Nazis to communist Marxists, an amazing leap.
Further, a Worthington school board member made public a letter she received from a constituent complaining about the Marxist indoctrination being foisted upon the innocent children. In the letter the writer complained about Critical Race Theory, the way the police are being portrayed, the NAACP, the Teachers Union and the Black Lives Matter movement, he somehow managed to miss the LGBTQ movement, but he hit almost every other hot button issue in two long, threatening paragraphs. He closed with a polite “You have become our enemies and you will be removed one way or another. Have a miserable, miserable day for the rest of your life you filthy traitor.” And to you as well, Mr. concerned citizen.
In Glen Ellyn Illinois anti mask protesters, feeling betrayed by the government, have turned on the children. Standing on the corner outside Forest Glen Elementary School protesters have taken to yelling at the students, telling the children they are slaves, calling them the youth of Hitler. These are children on their way to school. I don’t think finding other parents to stand and yell at the parents (?) who are yelling at the children is the correct solution but something has to be done. The village Chief of Police is powerless to quell non-violent protests. It doesn’t make any sense, but crassness and cruelty are protected by the 1st amendment.
Isn’t it always the sins of the parents visited upon the youth? Technology has allowed us to visit the sins of every parent on all the children and we are taking full advantage of the opportunity.
It has gotten to the point now that I have to search out these things. Anti-mask protests happen so often they hardly make news anymore, you seen one, you’ve seen ‘em all. We have moved onto bigger, meaner things, debt crisis in the government, missing You Tube influencer, botched Afghanistan evacuation, nuclear submarines going to Australia. Screaming and hollering and accusing each other of having dictatorial aspirations and leftist or rightist leanings outside the allowable standard deviations are banal. But, I still worry about the residual effects this conflict, all this acrimony, is going to have on the youth and the future of our country.
And it isn’t just the bitterness, either. What about the mistrust of medical professionals, news organizations, elected officials? How do we expect the next generation to govern effectively if they think everybody with any authority is a liar? Won’t that make them easy prey for foreign adversaries who don’t have all these rights and liberties to worry about? If we can’t stand strong we won’t stand at all.
[1] Isaac Asimov
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This post is republished on Medium.
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