The last American lament

by Mike Meyer

We’ve spent so long being anguished, anxious, and angry that we have, despite our best efforts, become inured to the destruction of our nation. The past two years have gone by with less and less feeling although the reality is more and more dire.

You try to think about other things. Maybe the people in Washington who keep acting as if this is just a bad political instance are right. Maybe we can just ignore it and hope it doesn’t directly affect us or our loved ones. But the ignorance and hatred are like mold on wet walls. The smell pervades . . .

Ignoring it is hard to do as the body count increases here and elsewhere. It once didn’t matter as much if the dead were somewhere else and part of some other insanity than ours. But we should have known after calling ourselves exceptional that we can’t just slip quietly into third rate nationhood. The other nations are still focused on us because of what we said we were. They are slow to believe it was just . . . advertising.

What happens here is either a model or a bad example but it is what people think about and then act on. We can try to pretend that allowing a group to take control who had no interest but power at any cost, was just a slight error that would be corrected.

That using a mentally ill psychopath to front their final, desperate power grab was just one of those sloppy little things that doesn’t really damage a democracy. But we know that last part has been gone for years. Now our negligence is threatening the planet. And the people of the planet are worried. They need to look elsewhere and will.

But even if we could manage not to look that monster in the face people everywhere who are thrilled by hatred and death as a way to ultimate power are using us as a shield. Our mockery of a president becomes an excuse for murdering helpless people to show that power and fear are what rule. And they are waving us as a flag of racism and armed violence with complete disdain for life and knowledge. There is no such thing as knowledge.

To them the only truth is their emptiness that they want to fill with hate for others and then kill to show what they think of themselves. And we have given them a ruler as an example. We allow him to strut and shout his crude hatreds and sick desires. He hides in lies except the hatred that he parades as what we really are.

The party that fronts this horror is firm. It’s all about money and power. Nothing else matters. No need to worry. The staff will make sure he only tweets and doesn’t act. We know he is incompetent so that will keep us safe and greed is a virtue that will protect our future.

But the ever changing White House staff are getting tired and the senators who grovel at his feet abandon everything for reelection by the sickest part of our population. We can’t lose a single vote until we can end this stupid right to vote by the wrong kind of people. We’re just doing what we have always done. No different. We pander to racism and Russia until the winds change and then we will sing a new song. Don’t worry.

Nations that have worked to avoid this horror are watching us in shock. A billion children know what is happening and we play games as if the world does not matter. They are calling us to be responsible for everyone, but we have forgotten how. We said we would but that just another lie. We look the other way and mouth excuses or blame someone else. We don’t have anything left to give.

Our sick ones shout that everything is a lie except the lies that they believe. We’ve allowed generations to be taught that the only truth is myth. So they take us at our word. The insane man laughs and tells them stories with lies from end to end. They love it because he loves it. And white men will again rule unchallenged without any need for knowledge. If you want a part of this you know what you had better do.

And the people who should act without regard for anything but human well being and survival, who should act under the highest constitution, just look the other way. Their laws can’t help and they don’t know what to do.