America, This is An Intervention
American corporations have too much money and political power. There is enormous socioeconomic disparity in this country. The top 1% owns almost as much wealth as the middle class. Unemployment is at a whopping 13%. The concentration of carbon dioxide in our atmosphere is the highest its been in human history. Rural America is deteriorating. Voices on the Right have been ignored. Racism permeates our systems, laws, government bodies, and institutions. Our education system is undervalued and underfunded. We hate Trump and his supporters. We hate Biden and his supporters. We are not hearing each other. We are not seeing each other. We are not seeing that the individual person is not the problem, but that the systems are the problem. We are fighting each other and getting nowhere.
We are blaming each other individually for something that is the fault of the collective system. Our focus is absolutely on the wrong problem. We are either validating our own beliefs in echo-chambers filled with people who think like us, or we are blaming “the other side” for the problems this country faces.
America and her Democracy are systemically and incoherently drunk. And because she is a manipulative drunk, she has tricked us into thinking that since she is the culmination of the people, for the people, and by the people, that we, as the individual persons, must be to blame.
Yet, individual people have values. Individual people show love and compassion for each other. Individual people want what is best for their family, friends, and neighbors. It seems like the collective whole would represent its parts. And yet, if we could rise above this country right now and hover over her for a minute, we would be appalled at the ugly, deteriorating mess before our eyes.
America, this is an intervention.
When you are drunk, you slur your speech, you are hypocritical, you are manipulative, you do not listen, you stumble and puke all over people, you drive drunk and senselessly kill people, and you completely ignore the basic human needs of your children. And yet, we love you and we know you love us. We know you do not mean to hurt us. We have seen you at your best. You are capable of really amazing things when you are sober. But if you do not sober up soon, we fear that you might hit rock botto — well, there you go.
Our journey to sober America up has to be both an individual and a collective effort. We must focus inward on an individual level, and outward on a system level. We must individually be honest with ourselves, seek to understand each other, and operate with humility and love. We must question our beliefs while staying true to our values. We must be open, we must be honest, and we must be kind. If we do, we will begin to notice that America’s unheard voices, two-party political system, unemployment, socioeconomic despair, oppressive and racist systems, and deteriorating middle-class are not random and disconnected issues floating in the air, but rather they are the torn fibers of the American fabric. And it is by sewing these fibers together that we will begin to see the full picture, which is the first step in rebuilding this country.
Our sweet America needs our help. Let us seek to understand her. Let us pick up her pieces, examine them, and see how they fit together. Where they are torn, let us mend them. Where they are non-existent, let us build them. Where they are damaged, let us heal them.
America, let us love you. Let us rebuild you.
