What is America’s’ problem? We’re the wealthiest nation in history. But our elderly often get substandard care and our infants die at a rate found in developing nations. We are willing to spend huge chunks of our resources on half-thought-out wars but we don’t have money for Head Start. We are the most religious Western society but we are morally empty. Just look at our insane and racist incarceration practices and how we are now torturing over 10,000 children in prisons like Riker’s Island with solitary confinement. Self-righteous moralizing falls flat when real sins like Flint, Michigan, are beaming into our living rooms. I never thought I’d agree with the Christian right. But we sure do need a spiritual movement where people awaken from their dream and actual believe what they believe, say what they mean and mean what they say, instead of aping the demagogues. Beliefs are not jewelry.

Think about our attitudes toward democracy. First, the Supreme Court decided to treat corporations like people. Then Citizen’s United granted money the same rights as people. The Republican Party fights voter rights laws. They hinder those who would vote against them with ID laws and restrict early voting on college campuses. Then they brag about the effectiveness of their anti-democracy program in Republican Party meetings. They must think it’s the ‘50s. Few seem angry though. It seems democracy, fairness, and justice are just words. They’re just heated rhetoric.

I know Americans have always eventually atoned for their sins. But we have a long ways to get to honesty and decency, and even civility. To paraphrase Stephen Hawking: I cannot explain the Trump phenomenon other than to say he appeals to the lowest common denominator. I agree with Nobel Laureate Noam Chomsky: the Republican party is now the most dangerous organization in the history of mankind.

Rick Walker

Snohomish