Once Upon A Time in America

Once upon a time in America, John Grisham wrote a book titled "A Time to Kill".  In that book the plot depended on good people doing the right thing in spite of the race of the people whose lives they held in their hands as a jury.

I'm not sure we are that America anymore, and it breaks my heart.  In fact, I seriously doubt that we are.  It seems in today's America, the first step is to find out what your demographics are, and then to decide how to feel about you.

I observe more and more often that people are not guided by a moral or ethical compass, but by whose "team" is being either exalted or criticized.

No matter what someone from your team or tribe does, it is excusable and supported.  The enemy is always wrong.

This is a certain path to the destruction of democracy.

Democracy is an ideal, an idea that government can exist by and for the people.  If the people have built ideological bunkers around themselves and all who they consider theirs, then democracy cannot survive.

Democracy depends on dialogue and truth.  In today's America, for many, truth is relative.  If the truth doesn't support a specific narrative, it is discarded by all who want that narrative to be true.

Right and wrong do not have a relationship with party affiliation, or gender, or race, or religion, or ethnicity, or gender identity, or sexual orientation.  When evaluating any situation, the evaluation of right and wrong, guilt and innocence, should be absent any demographic identifiers of the participants.

This is why the statue of justice wears a blindfold, and the term "justice is blind" is so important to a fair judiciary.

I understand that no perfect society or system of government exists.  From the origins of this nation, America, we have struggled to become a more perfect union.   The sins of the past, from slavery, to denying the vote to women, to denying the vote to minorities, have not yet been fully overcome.

The sins of the present, of systemic racism, and systemic misogyny, and systemic religious discrimination are actually being fed and nurtured by the current tribalism.

Anyone who loves America can do one thing to help get us out of the mess we are in.  We can all put ourselves into the stories we hear and read.  If a person did that to me, would I be happy or sad?  If I did that to someone, would I be proud or ashamed?  Does the truth matter to me, or is it more important to be right?

There are many things that I see happening today that make me believe there is a collective psychosis gripping much of America.  I hope that the veil lifts soon.  Our freedom may depend on it.