It is a difficult period for any apolitical American (who
now ought to fully understand why his precursor was often called out as the
“Ugly American”); there is a lack of something vital, call it a moral compass,
call it a moral center, call it morality itself; perhaps it's the lack of a unifying national purpose. Whatever label you choose to stick on this chronic disease, there is also a lack of a sincere,
intelligent, ethical leadership at many levels of society and its
institutions. It is undeniably despoiling and threatening our present and future welfare.
Across the political spectrum from the far left to the far
right, staunch supporters and opponents to Trump's so-called "agenda" have begun to express
their doubts about his ability as a person, let alone as a sitting President, to
govern and guide us out of the dangerous economic and social cultural malaise in which
we find ourselves after centuries of painfully slow progress towards
realizing an amorphous “American Dream.”
How does a nation whose citizens were bred to be “Individualists”, whether rugged or otherwise, become “Out of Many, One”? Certainly not by condoning bigotry,
privilege, or equivocating good and evil, might and right.
We are all of us to blame, of course; and it certainly will
take all of us working together to get the ship of state on a correct course
before smashing upon the rocks of forever lost potential.
