Thursday, February 9, 2023

America, 2022

     America, 2022

Published in Marietta Daily Journal (GA), Oct. 29, 2022

            Today chaos and uncertainty lie everywhere. Nations, governments, economies, and families are wavering throughout the world. The U.K., the world’s 6th largest economy, is in political shambles. War still rages in Ukraine where Russian troops are gathering up orphaned children, carrying them to Russia. Russia and China are still the bad boys they’ve always been. Neither North America nor the continent of Europe currently has a ruling Churchill, a Thatcher, a Truman, or a Reagan who can look dark clouds in the face and still be lighthearted and inspiring. In the recent words of Reagan’s speechwriter Peggy Noonan, “Today America is a Worried Land.”

            As for the land that birthed America, the United Kingdom may still be strong economically but she is no longer the exporter of civilization that she once was to many areas of the earth. Before uniting with Scotland and Ireland to become the U.K., little England, about the size of the state of Alabama, via her small ships and large spread her culture and language throughout the world. One would be hard pressed to argue that the English language and English culture did not improve every land where English ships docked. Before rightly giving her empire away, England also abolished slavery 32 years before America did.

            In regard to governance, the U.K. and the USA are wading through what England’s John Bunyan, author of Pilgrim’s Progress, called “the slough of despond.” After serving 44 days, the recently elected Prime Minister resigned only to be replaced by a globalist of all globalists, 42-year-old multimillionaire Rishi Sunak, a former Goldman Sachs banker. Welcome back to Number 10 Downing Street, globalists of the world, as well as those of you who fought Brexit and still want to be governed from Brussels. Feel free to walk on by, you Conservative Party members who wanted to make the U.K. great again. Globalism is back. Sovereign nations are passé.

            America’s governing situation is similarly shaky. One wonders if President Biden will be able to serve another full year. Standing straight up this past week during an interview with MSNBC’s Jonathan Capehart, the president closed his eyes and absolutely dozed for a few seconds. Seeing what was happening, Capehart forcefully said, “Mr. President!” and the president woke up. How unsettling is that? 

But who would be president if Biden resigns? We know the answer and that answer is equally unsettling. Throughout the western free world, leadership is in crisis. Turmoil in American is like none since the War Between the States. Not all of the turmoil is purely political. It’s also social and moral. Consider the following factoid that’s more than a factoid: “The U.S. Social Security Administration said it is allowing people to select their gender in its records, a move the agency said would give more  options to transgender and gender diverse people” (Wall Street Journal, 10/21/22).

Try one more: A June Gallup poll revealed that 72% of Americans have lost confidence in public schools because schools “are focused more on how race and gender should be taught than on helping students get back on track” (National Review, 9/12/22).

Yes, gender, gender, gender; race, race, race; honoring homosexuality; transgender sexual mutilation of children; the President sitting and hobnobbing with a silly man posing as a woman, all going on with background music from the nation’s corporations, celebrities, most universities, the NFL, liberal media stars, and you name it. Lost in it all is broad daylight crime to which a few Democrat mayors and governors have begun – wonder why, November 8th ? – to pay a little attention.

Our turmoil is also related to morality. Time was when the Super Bowl halftime show was the supreme display of licentiousness. No more. The recent regular season NFL Raiders-Texans game, featuring that unclad paragon of sexiness, Iggy Azalea, reset the norm even lower. So that’s why the Raiders left Oakland for Vegas. Anyone who doesn’t think public morality, ever increasing nudity, pervasive porn, and filthy language doesn’t take a negative toll on high school and college students needs to teach at one or the other for one year. The point here is what kind of climate do we need for producing quality, visionary leaders of rectitude in the first place? How is America’s moral climate doing now?

But hope springs eternal in the human breast, someone wrote. There are many men and women in the nation who could make things better and many are ready and willing to lead. The question is will we choose the right ones to lead or continue to be swept away by the social/moral hurricane that now swirls around us?

 

Roger Hines

October 27, 2022

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