We all know our country is in serious trouble.
Everyone knows it. It doesn’t matter what perspective we see it from, left or right, or who we blame. It doesn’t matter what we think the biggest problem is, or what we think the solution is or how we feel about it — very few people see a rosy future rolling sweet waters down on the United States anytime soon, if ever.
Nevertheless, I am going to reiterate some points I made in a similar diary 4 years ago in the hope that we, here, where we claim a common cause, can pull together and focus on the most obvious threats to our democracy. It hasn’t gotten better, folks.
Most of these threats are so obvious as to be ridiculous, so I won’t spend a great deal of time elucidating, rather I will attempt to quickly illustrate them with a few recent examples. I am not prioritizing, simply listing.
Climate Change
- Water: Plastic and toxic chemical acid acidification in the world’s oceans will devastate humanity in 25 years
- Temperatures: The UK issues its first code red heat emergency with fears of hundreds to thousands of deaths.
- Disasters: Wildfires, toxic poisonings, floods, famines, mudslides, earthquakes, heatwaves, droughts, tornados, tropical storms...Earth Matters: As Alaska and Siberia blaze, the Arctic is warming faster than previously calculated
- Truth: Supreme Court will torch the planet today
(many thanks to Pakalolo and Meteor Blades for helping to educate me and others at Daily Kos re the ongoing crisis)
Racism
- 25-year-old Jayland Walker, a Black man, suffered at least 60 wounds when police officers fatally shot him last week following a high-speed chase. He was unarmed at the time he was killed, though a gun was recovered from his car. June 27, 2022
- The white 22-year-old suspect of a mass shooting during a Fourth of July parade in the Chicago suburb of Highland Park has been "taken into custody without incident", police said. He was later charged with 7 counts of murder. July 5, 2022
- Photographs showing shooting targets with the images of Black men holding weapons with children gathered around them were taken at a Farmington Hills Police Department’s practice area during a Boy Scouts field trip in April. An investigation is now underway. (The images have been removed, yet the “images of the targets used were consistent with the Michigan Commission on Law Enforcement Standards and were intended to “represent a mix of both threat and non-threat targets,” Police Chief Jeff King said.) July 5, 2022
Civil Liberties
(Each deserves its own set of diaries.)
Voting Rights
Women’s Rights
Housing
Healthcare
Education
Gun Violence
LGBTQ Rights
What is the dire warning?
Four years ago, my diary compared some of the painful/shameful history of our country to the forced separation of families instituted by the Trump administration’s immigration policies.
Our country did not heed the warning and we have fallen into many other deep and frightening chasms since then. Chasms which now threaten its very existence.
I am unsure of certain solutions, but one thing I do know, we must get together NOW to save our country, our future, and our planet.
United we stand. Divided we fall. And sadly, I cannot, include “them” in the “we” any longer. We must defeat them. We must defeat them soundly. November 8, 2022.
With our power and our unity.
Our power comes from the truth. Our power comes from our unity. Our power comes from our vote.
Three-legged stool.
Truth. Unity. Vote.