Where Are We Headed?

This morning I enjoyed my coffee on the deck.  It was a perfect morning for it.  Coffee, warming sun, and life happening all around me.

As our two Golden Retrievers scouted the yard, I enjoyed the slowly rising sun, the clear air, and the multitude of different bird conversations going on around me.  I heard the familiar bark of a Cardinal as it flew from tree to tree, apparently giving orders to whomever would listen. I watched two Mourning Doves make their landing, in formation. (Do they always and only travel in pairs?)

I began to contemplate the recent events in our country.  Hate has always been with us.  But when was “supremacy” of a particular race ever a thing?  Or at least a thing that worked?    Have we not studied our own history enough?  Has nothing been learned from a civil war? A “final solution” by Nazis in World War Two? 

And what about the so-called “antifa?”  Are they any more valid? What is their motivation?  Their TRUE motivation?  Nothing I have seen from them gives me any confidence in their good intentions.

It seems to me that today we have too many “causes” with wrong motivation.  Wrong philosophies have a way of proving themselves wrong after a time.  Socialism, Communism, bad ideas that just don’t work.   “White supremacy” and the so-called “Antifa.” Both wrong-headed philosophies, more bad ideas.  Why do they keep hanging on?  What keeps them alive?  Hate.   My son says, they’re “two sides of the same wooden nickel.”  When has hate ever worked?

Today, it seems to me if you don’t like something, you are obligated to hate it.  And all associated with it.  How’s that working for us?  We seem to have jumped from “I disagree with you” to “I hate you.”  We seem to have lost all respect for anything we don’t agree with.  I wonder why we don’t hate “hate?” Racism is bad. What to do about it?  Tear down statues, thump anyone who gets in our way.  Too many questionable police shootings?  Hate all cops, ambush them.  Kill them.  Don’t like the elected president?  Hate him.  Hate everyone whom you think supports him.  Hate him enough to burn something down.  Hate violence? Bring baseball bats and bottles to your protest.  Too many things just don’t make sense anymore.

And do we really, honestly believe that the current climate in our country just popped up since last November’s election? It has been building for years.  I would suggest researching attorney and political scientist from Vanderbilt University, Dr. Carol Swain’s study of the issue in her book from 2002 titled “The New White Nationalism in America.”

As I looked out over the treetops from the deck this morning, I thought about the monuments that are falling all over the country.  Monuments to a tragic moment from our past.  A past we MUST remember and NEVER repeat.  And I wondered, is Mount Rushmore next?  Washington, D.C.?  Where does it end?  How long before the joke about the “P.C. Police” becomes an unfunny reality?  Don’t think it’s possible? 

Think about it.

“News” organizations no longer seem to report the news—they create it.  And we choose whichever outlet best supports our philosophies and rely on them as Gospel, regardless of how biased they are.  We use social media as a weapon to beat others over the head with our “truths.”    We seem to have come to the conclusion that the only way to change something is to destroy it first, with no regard for collateral damage. 

I wondered if our enemies were waiting for us to wound ourselves enough, further weaken ourselves, so they can strike?  And I wonder if they even need to.