Somehow it feels like one of those times during a football game when you can sense the momentum changing inexorably in favor of the underdog. Slowly the dominance of the favorite team bleeds away and inevitably the challenger wins.<\/p>\n
I sense, I feel, and I see this happening to the United States. In football, mistakes are made, complacency sets in, people get tired and leadership doesn\u2019t keep up with the changes made by adversaries. Unfortunately this picture is an apt metaphor for what is happening here, right now, in our local communities, the states, and most devastatingly with the federal government.<\/p>\n
Outrageous behavior, illegal acts, incivility, inhumanity, and abuse of constitutional and legal prerogatives at the federal level have become acceptable. From CEOs to shoeshine boys and the halls of Congress, evil, nasty and immoral actions are now accepted as the norm. The nation is being run by an oligarchy headed by Donald Trump, a crook bent on revenge and personal enrichment. We too often mutter \u201cHo, hum, there\u2019s really nothing I can do about it\u201d or \u201cI don\u2019t like Trump, but he\u2019s doing the right thing with immigration and taking care of the farmers,\u201d for example. Those of us who are living well simply look the other way; we are not personally impacted by what is going on. Here Martin Niemoller\u2019s* famous poem should warn us about complacency; by not speaking out we become complicit and only postpone our own enslavement.<\/p>\n
The rub is that as time goes on things are going to get worse. Watchdog agencies are being trashed, qualified bureaucrats are being replaced by Trump toadies, judges are being assailed and threatened, the military is being undermined and used for political purposes, ICE continues to be overzealous and increasingly acts as Trump\u2019s \u201cBrownshirts,\u201d often arresting and physically abusing American citizens.<\/p>\n
In the meantime, major issues including healthcare and economic problems remain unresolved at home while American leadership overseas fails to effectively address the Russo-Ukrainian War or serious economic and military challenges from China and Russia.<\/p>\n
Clearly, the momentum of American leadership and dominance of the last eighty years is diminished. More frighteningly, however, is the continued breakdown of constitutional government and threats to the personal well-being of all Americans.<\/p>\n
We presently are in the most dangerous time since the Civil War.<\/p>\n
* Martin Niemoller, the German Lutheran minister who wrote \u201cFirst They Came.\u201d Niemoller, initially an antisemitic Nazi supporter, changed his views after being sent to a concentration camp for criticizing Nazi control of churches.<\/p>\n
Here are the first couple lines of Niemoller’s poem:<\/p>\n
"First they came for the
\nCommunists
\nAnd I did not speak out
\nBecause I am not a
\nCommunist<\/p>\n
Then they came for the
\nSocialists
\nAnd I did not speak out
\nBecause I am not a Socialist"<\/p>\n
The poem’s last stanza reads:<\/p>\n
"Then they came for me–and
\nthere was no one left to speak for me."<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Somehow it feels like one of those times during a football game when you can sense the momentum changing inexorably in favor of the underdog. Slowly the dominance of the favorite team bleeds away and inevitably the challenger wins. I sense, I feel, and I see this happening to the United States. In football, mistakes…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1418","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-by-robert-fischer"],"yoast_head":"\n