Where are you, America? The nation I once knew has disappeared. The values with which I grew up and believed are hardly noticeable today. Honesty is rare. Not too long ago we could usually tell when someone was lying, and if they were we rejected them and their ideas. We still can tell if someone is lying, and even though there is proof of their lying, millions choose to believe the lies. Now demagogs spew absurd and vicious lies, and their followers blindly accept every word as truth. Scientists who deal with health issues and who have created cures for hundreds of conditions, supposedly no longer know what they are doing. Instead, these same demagogs are now the experts when it comes to Covid and climate change. They proscribe cures for diseases that the medical community warns will not work or will do more harm. Or these so-called experts tell us that health issues like Covid are a hoax, and we should not take steps to protect ourselves (i.e. no masks, no vaccines, etc.). And at last count over one million (1,000,000) Americans lives have been lost, many because they listened to the lies of a few master manipulators whose only goal is to gain power (at any cost).
I don’t for one minute believe that the millions who accept the lies and those who speak them, are the majority. I believe, no, I know that the vast majority of Americans reject the false and divisive rhetoric that assails us every day. But that is not enough. While millions may support the liars and show up at rallies in support of the lies, the true majority of Americans reject the liars and do not show up at the rallies. But that is exactly the problem—-we don’t show up. We turn off the news, complain to a few friends and colleagues about the decline in basic human values — like honesty. Where are you America, the ones who value truth. Why aren’t we hearing your voices, why aren’t you rallying in support of honesty? Why are we letting a minority claim to have the truth which we know is false?
I recently thought I should write a non-confrontational blog that would try to find the middle ground on today’s issues. There was enough one-sided and angry diatribe on the internet and air waves, in communities, in rallies, and even in homes. What was needed, in my opinion, was a more calming voice that would help us find common ground. But I was wrong.