HEY, MR. AND MS. AMERICA, WHAT IS YOUR STATE OF MIND?

By Edwin Cooney

Under our constitution, the president annually must present to Congress and the people his (or eventually her) evaluation of the State of the Union. Thus, as we prepare to vote in 2024, it's a good idea that you and I prepare our own judgment of the state of the American Union.

Last Saturday, July 13th,  a former president was nearly assassinated. The last time we assassinated a sitting president (on November 22nd, 1963), aside from a growing civil rights movement, America was pretty content with itself. Today, what we love, hate, fear and yet long for depends on where we live, what race, religion or gender we identify with, along with ideals that we value or reject.

Happily, it  appears that most of us reject and even resent the attempted assassination of Mr. Trump. His supporters reject the effort due to their love for him. His opponents are loathe to make a martyr out of him. Still, those two motives may tell us more about ourselves than we realize.

As I see it, the only legitimate motive for killing another human being is immediate personal physical preservation! Still, we've been killing one another since Cain killed Abel. Hence, the obvious question: when are most Americans intrigued or excited?

It appears to me that Americans are happiest and most content when we're involved as participants in sports or when judging the lives, backgrounds and motives of entertainers or celebrities: who's the best singer, actor, poet, republican, democrat, liberal or conservative? Who's the best of the best? Who's the worst of the worst?

Here's one for you: when you're riding in or driving a car, are you as sane as other drivers or passengers? What weather forecaster consistently offers the best weather forecast? Are the drivers in New England or in California the worst?  Are the young or are the elderly the best citizens?

How curious are we about things with which we're not familiar?

As for 2024, how capable are we to select the best presidential candidate?

Are we sufficiently tolerant to preserve The United States of America considering our clashes of need, interests, and individual goals and fortunes? Do we care sufficiently about one another to vote responsibly for the next president?

No essay, let alone commentary, is complete if the author doesn't offer some guidance listing the beliefs and principals important to him or her! Here are mine:

1) I believe most people are fundamentally good and well meaning and try to follow the golden rule.

2) America is, as Benjamin Franklin asserted following the Constitutional Convention, a Republic. Subsequently, it steadily has sought to grow into a democracy!

3) America has been led by men and women who have sought to combine both practicality and principle during which practicality most often comes first. Our treatment of Native Americans and Blacks most represents the dominance of practicality over principle!

4) Too many of us hope God will bless America when God's blessings belong to people, not nations! Has any preacher asserted that we will find nations in Heaven?

5) Too many Americans assign racism to others and ignore their own racism!

6) We cleverly turn our personal and physical efforts and emotional drawbacks into profitable institutions for our financial benefit. Thus we have paid doctors, nurses, teachers, preachers, police and fire-persons, soldiers, sailors, prostitutes and pimps.

7) Drivers love to own cars trucks, even hearses and ambulances, but they don't trust each others driving habits!

8) All lawyers are shysters except for one’s own!

9) All politicians are crooks except the ones we prefer!

As for America's greatness, that occurred when we gained our independence from Britain, when we asserted that “all men are created equal,” as voting rights grew in proportion to prejudices, when slaves were freed and the rights of Native Americans were equalized, as government began serving the poor as much as it does the rich, when indebtedness was decriminalized, when church and state were separated, when the rights and responsibilities of the disabled were strengthened, when women gained the vote along with increased status and expectation, and as God's gift of science conquered disease.

Since America is ultimately a collection of the wisest and the foolish, the creative and the lazy, its greatness will inevitably ebb and flow.
 
Any politician who "trumpets" American greatness as a political commodity is trying to sell you and me something we don't need!

RESPECTFULLY SUBMITTED,

EDWIN COONEY