By Edwin Cooney
Although “America the Beautiful” plays deep in my soul as I write, the unpublished song “America the Scared” rattles around in my brain! In many states, a program exists designed to "scare straight” teenage delinquents who are thought to be ticketed for adult prison. Hence, will America be scared straight or scared to death due to the social, economic, and political body blows she has suffered over the past nearly 24 years?
A review of recent history reminds me that we've had at least ten major national crises since the year 2000. First there were those “hanging chads” and the partisan Supreme Court that defeated the winner of the popular vote of 2000.
Next came September 11th, 2001 when Toby Keith suggested in his angry song "Courtesy of the Red, White and Blue” that “we’ll put a boot in your ass” of one or two Arab societies who had sought to intimidate us by hijacking our own airplanes.
Next, believing that Saddam Hussein possessed “weapons of mass destruction,” we pinned him down in a cave and eventually sent him to the gallows. Then, we sent good American soldiers into Iraq in a frustrating and rather futile attempt to control the land of the Tigress and Euphrates from which we all originated. That conflict lasted until 2011.
In 2008, there were two disasters. One, which was economic, resulted from poor commercial banking and consumer rip-offs. For too many, the other disaster was political — the election as president of a man both Black and of Islamic and African extraction!
In 2010, there came “Obamacare."
In 2011, Osama bin Laden was captured but, satisfactory as it was, our president didn't deserve credit for it!
In 2012, there was the Sandy Hook shooting and a government shutdown by the president's political opposition.
As shootings continued throughout 2014 and 2015, the old capital punishment controversy became silly as most shooters killed themselves.
In 2016, for the second time in 16 years (and four presidential elections), the electoral college winner was the popular vote loser. There were matters having to do with one candidate's emails and the other candidate's relationship with women.
Once 2017 got underway, there was the National Security Advisor's lies and an angry president's cries. There were 7 school shootings in 2017, 9 in 2018, and 7 more in 2019.
Finally, 2020 brought the question forth as to whether Black lives mattered or didn’t and what was right, wrong or uncertain regarding our responses to Covid!
Accompanying all this was the 2020 election and what, if anything, either candidate had to do with it.
Twenty-first century Americans have more information at their fingertips than any generation in history. We're flooded with stories of minority groups' lifestyles, mores, and political demands. We know, or think we do, about many types of people and their lifestyles that appear to threaten our very national heritage. All of these uncertainties both personalize and politicize every public issue.
In addition to attitudes which are anti-Semitic, anti-Catholic, and against those who are foreign born — going back to the beginning of our republic — people hate gays and lesbians, Muslims, and others who may be married or unmarried. Many insist, especially the religious, that they hate the sin, but love the sinner but when you ask them what sinner they love, their response gets vague and defensive. Fear, the father of hatred, so dominates us, including fear and jealousy of the successful and perhaps especially of the rich, that we're ultimately confused as to where the root of our fears resides.
Back in 2020, candidate Joe Biden told author Evan Osnos, "The problem addressing hatred is that to do so only gives hatred more oxygen. If we can't even address hatred, how can we hope to wisely select and elect our national leadership?”
We've become so enamored by suspicion, hatred and fear that the very idea of tolerance either scares us to death or may, just may, one day soon even scare us straight!
RESPECTFULLY SUBMITTED,
EDWIN COONEY
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