A Nation at Odds
Thirty years ago when I lived in the Washington DC area my mother came to visit. A widow, she was born in Ukraine, and as a little girl witnessed the murder of her grandparents in a pogrom. With her mother she walked across much of Europe to get on a ship that took them to New York City to be reunited with her father, who had come to our country a few years earlier.
One night mom and I drove into DC to see the US Capitol building. Brilliantly lit, it was a stirring sight. Gazing upon that magnificent structure, an edifice built in part with the sweat and toil of enslaved people, I was unexpectedly moved to tears. Unexpected because I thought I had long before abandoned the myths and half-truths of America that nurtured me as a child. My dry-eyed mother only said, “pretty.’”
In the years since I have grown increasingly sentimental about many things, but my country is not one of them. Our “exceptionalism” is an empty slogan dusted off every four years for candidates’ pontifications. We are a nation at odds with ourselves, beset by incompatible and implacable beliefs and ideologies, unable to seriously engage problems such as climate change or gun violence. Hate, racism, narrow-mindedness, lies, and violence, always a part of the American character, have assumed a central place in our public life.
Our nation lies in the balance and may face nasty outcomes in the future. Rule by force and repression; despots with extreme theological beliefs; an autocrat and his henchmen as deranged and single-minded as we now describe our global enemies. The danger is heightened when the executive is working with a compliant Congress, and a reactionary Supreme Court. A military takeover to “restore order” is not outside the realm of possibilities.
https://www.postalley.org/2024/07/04/a-nation-at-odds/