How did our world, our country, get so crazy? So much turmoil and incivility finds its way to the front page of our local newspapers and TV station news daily. Is a return to “normalcy” on the horizon or just a headline or two away? Years ago, a popular song, titled “The Morning After” echoed across the airwaves. Although written as a movie theme song the words seem to apply to the current times.
“There’s got to be a morning after
If we can hold on through the night,
we have a chance to find the sunshine
Let’s keep on looking for the light
Oh, can’t you see the morning after
It’s waiting right outside the storm”
Where is our storm? We have government acting crazy, people, even in families, refusing to speak to each other. How does this manifest itself today? The government actions are a most prominent component of this storm.
Our President after being elected assigns one of his appointees to identify specific agencies and to continue with laying off, firing, whatever term you prefer, large numbers of employees. Labeled as efficiency without any review or justification the axe fell. Some of us believe public servants are overpaid and under worked so there is no great concern or uproar. Various government agencies are declared to be unnecessary, no need to document. The targeted agencies continue understaffed and overworked. It is a problem when phone calls from the public go unanswered or our social security checks are delayed. Then too there is the Veterans Administration. It is different until it is not with substantial cuts in employees. Despite Republican claims to the contrary our economy after Covid was coming back stronger and faster than most other countries. Since our most recent election it has reversed despite claims to the contrary. Tariffs are another problem imposed on others but paid by US citizens. This the world we have created which seems to say it’s not a problem until it hits “me” personally.
This concern by the “me” generations occupied the forefront of many concerns until ICE took to our streets. “ICE sees its mission as encompassing both public safety and national security. However, its powers are different than the average local police department in the US. Its agents have the power to stop, detain, and arrest people they suspect of being in the US illegally.” Removing people from courtrooms, classrooms, employment, in our churches, standing on our streets is not how they should behave. We have professionally trained and authorized police officers with the ability to detain and arrest individuals. Minneapolis changed much of this. People were outraged by the behavior, the actions, of Immigration and Customs Enforcement. Now it wasn’t just “me” but the treatment of others that became the focus. This attitude is what America has always stood for. Our definition of life, liberty and happiness remains who we are, what we believe for all people. Kidnapping a ruthless dictator may have felt good but changed little for the people of Venezuela and violated the rules of international law. Claiming the need of and right for the US to claim Greenland is insane and disruptive of NATO. Leaving Ukraine without adequate US support to resist Russia’s outright invasion of its sovereign boundaries is incredible. New executive orders everyday making outrageous claims of presidential power. The court challenges continue with many courts declaring the President lacks the authority to issue such orders. Efforts ongoing to gerrymander states to the benefit mostly the Republican Party and so much more.
Who is speaking out for all of us. Being a voice to the voiceless is our duty as Americans. People stand up every day to give voice to the voiceless not because it the right thing to do, but because they have no choice. The call to speak, to act, comes storming like an invading army, we are told by Richard Rohr. The speaker relinquishes comfort and speaks with the hope of being heard and listened to.
Our voices are often drowned out by the loud yelling of some minor group. This group seems to live in fear of their overall group’s declining majority status. The focus of their noise is seeking a means to hold down any rising minority such as immigrants and others. I hope the opposition we are seeing in Minneapolis and other places is on our horizon. Let us hope for a more just, fair, welcoming, and democratic nation. A return to our caring past. In these times, these times of fear and loss, hate and love, there must be a morning after.
Phil's Personal Perspectives 