I have been quiet for the last three weeks.
I know.
It is not because I don’t have anything to say.
It’s because I have probably too much to say.
So, I unilaterally put a muffler on myself for the last three weeks.
Peeling it back…
I have had lots of 1:00 am “staring at the ceiling” sessions over the last month.
No exaggeration.
I have been staring at the ceiling a few hours a night pretty much daily the whole month of October.
Tossing. Turning. Thinking. Pondering.
I have been chewing on some personal things for sure. We all have those.
But mostly, at 1:00 am, what I am pondering is the state of “us.”
Us, as in "U.S.".
And when I say us/U.S., I mean all races, religions (or not), genders, political affiliations, orientations, economic statuses, shapes, sizes, and any other way humans are configured.
You. Me. They.
We are individuals. Yet, we are all connected.
The list of dumpster fires we all see is not a one-sided blame game. There are no clear good sides or bad sides. It appears the entire continuum on every issue has been ubiquitously coated in manure.
In my 56 years, I have not witnessed anything like what we see today.
Our political process is broken in multiple places.
Our mass media is now a wholesale distributor of fiction.
Our inability to treat each other as civilized beings, worthy of respect and transparent discourse, has reached an alarming level. (Let alone, how can we compromise?)
Our daily dose of seeing people harming each other, each other’s property, and just plain general lawlessness makes most of us feel uneasy.
Our economic vitality is in a state of uncertainty.
Our inability to adapt and overcome C-19 has many of us wondering if anyone knows what lies ahead.
I worry that unless we take a breath and agree to get back to working on what core fundamentals have made this country an example to the world (as imperfect and at times misguided it has been), that we are all watching a slide into something dangerous to our freedom.
History has shown great countries generally rot from within. I worry that what we have seen in the last several months are the early signs of this decay.
Where is this all going?
How can they/I/we make things better or at least not make things worse?
What happens if X or Y or Z happens?
Is it too late?
It is enough to keep a person up at night.
If it keeps you up at night as well, connect with me on Twitter at EdRoshitsh…at 1:00 am, we can try to solve the problems one 240 letter sentence at a time.
Stay Steadfast, My Friends!