INDIFFERENCE: THAT'S THE ROOT OF ALL EVIL!

By Edwin Cooney

For as far back as I can remember, some have insisted that FDR's New Deal was the root of all American evil. However, since political outlook does not exist without cause, it seems to me that no idea or political stand can exist without cause and effect. Thus, in 2024, neither Joe Biden nor Donald Trump lies at the center of our national sins.

This being the case, what “we the people” seek or are indifferent to reflects both our saintliness and sinfulness.

If we look to the past for affirmation of our greatness or strictly to the left for our salvation, we're seeking ideology rather than reason to guide our destiny. So, let's go to the absolute root of our dilemma.

Most people when asked what the opposite of "love" is will invariably respond "hatred." However, both love and hate have passion as the root of their existence.

Indifference has boredom, a lack of a sense of good or evil, self-centeredness and fear at its core.

Unity, prosperity and freedom have always been our national goal as stated in the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution of the United States. However, despite these national goals, we have been too indifferent to the misfortunes of peoples whom we ought to have treated differently than we ultimately did.

When unity, freedom, and prosperity are absent from how we practice or what we do, we're inviting discord to be a part of our future. We need the inclusion of the creative and conscientious to energize us beyond our indifferences.

Of course, no one can be responsible for all of the legitimate causes that exist in 21st Century America. I once read an amusing article written by the late great Art Buchwald in which he tried to get his Aunt Goldie to stop worrying about everything in New York and to let Mayor John Lindsay worry about things over which Aunt Goldie had no control.

What enhances today's sense of indifference is the realization that neither the politicians nor the scientific and social scientists can reach a reliable response to either the nature or solutions of public causes.

Here are five problems and their root causes that aren't being addressed:

1) We won't get to the immigration solution until we realize that its existence arises from conditions in Central and South America. After all, people don't move without being frightened.

2) America’s quarrel with their LGBTQ neighbors may at least lessen considerably once “straights” understand that they are who they are for biological reasons rather than out of socio/religious defiance.          

3) Racial prejudice has been a part of our behavior going back to the labor challenges of seventeen century Virginia and we are guilty of it. We fear that one day soon, racial minorities may seek revenge on the once Anglo-Saxon white majority.That's why the old Southern Confederacy continuously seeks to minimize its guilt and maximize its patriotism since the Spanish-American War of the 1890s.

4) Rather than follow the dictates of our religious heritages, we've had a tendency to politically use and  promote them against causes and peoples we fear.

5) Our treatment of native citizens was as cruel as the Holocaust. Yet we hope and even expect Native Americans to forgive us because, after all, it was in the past!

Ultimately, we've been more wonderful than we've been inhumane! However, there are several conditions we remain indifferent to at our own peril. These include the national and worldwide environment and the danger of encouraging international conflict due to our own understandings and prejudices. We must promote inclusion rather than political and social indifference to others.

Yes, indeed, our indifferences are potentially far more destructive than even our prejudices. After all, our indifferences lie at the root of our prejudices!

RESPECTFULLY SUBMITTED,

EDWIN COONEY