United We Stand, Divided We Fall

What has happened to America? Once it was the place to escape religious and political tyranny, now a source of tyranny and religious fever. We were a country that championed compassion and charity, and now so many of us seem eager to throw our own to the wolves.. We were a country that prided itself on justice for all and freedom of choice and now we seem ready to feed from the schadenfreude trough. I carefully selected that word because the translation from its German origin means: satisfaction or pleasure felt at someone else's misfortune.  

Ron Paul avoided answering Wolf Blitzer's craftily framed question: What if a 30 year old man who chose to not buy insurance suddenly found himself in need of life saving care – should we let him die? The Congressman avoided a direct answer by saying, "that's what freedom is about – taking your own risk." But by all definitions, that clearly means yes. When Blitzer rephrased the question, "should society let him die?" the crowd burst, with some screaming yeah, and more offering vigorous applause. That's when we became what we have abhorred and shamed other cultures for, when they expressed such inhumane foible. Surely that mob mentality, that apathetic explosion of ignorance cannot be where we want our country to go. Yet none of the candidates distanced themselves from the remarks.

Schadenfreude is not so foreign to the American way of life. In fact, it has become our basic principal by which we reward ourselves. We capitalize off of each others' misfortunes. The GDP (Gross Domestic Product) is our meter for prosperity, yet it measures favorably or unfavorably in unison with the degree of devastation imposed on one another. When someone gets cancer, the GDP goes-up. When a hurricane hits land, the GDP goes-up. If a school bus runs off a cliff, the GDP goes-up. Just about every disaster you can imagine, calculates the repercussions that follow, ultimately raising the GDP. It all becomes Gross Domestic Product (pun intended). This would suggest, a close examination to just what prosperity really means, is in order. As Ralph Nadar said, "We must learn to subtract."

When a room breaks out in cheer, for no other reason than because someone mentions Governor Perry has executed 234 people in the state of Texas, it's time to inspect our collective soul. During debates, candidates stand at their podiums and win merit by stating how each will step over more bodies than the others to please their austere populace. At the most recent Republican presidential debate, a gay soldier appeared on a giant screen to ask Rick Santorum a question concerning "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" and the audience booed him. Here is a soldier who had volunteered to risk his life in combat to protect us all, something neither Santorum nor many members of the audience have done, and he is booed for no other reason than his sexual orientation. The fact that none of those debating denounced the reaction as an impudent act, speaks volumes about not only their character, but our expectations. 

In Milton Mayer's "They Thought They Were Free" he writes: "This separation of government from people, this widening of the gap, took place so gradually and so insensibly, each step disguised (perhaps not even intentionally) as a temporary emergency measure or associated with true patriotic allegiance or with real social purposes. And all the crises and reforms (real reforms, too) so occupied the people that they did not see the slow motion underneath, of the whole process of government growing remoter and remoter." He was writing about 1933 Germany and its trek to Fascism. He was writing about isolationism and the holier-than-thou posture it entwines. 

We rarely recognize change, it creeps up on us and it seldom arrives as a round-trip ticket. America has been asleep at the wheel, and suddenly has awakened with all of the grace of a demolition derby. We cannot ridicule and abuse those less fortunate, those struggling to belong, to succeed, to be safe, and healthy, and look to find comfort in doing so. This approach will surely undermine our history and our future. 

There is no quick and easy way out of a place that took many roads to get to. It is important to remember; much of the wealth generated over the last decade came at the expense of those who found their factories closed at no fault of their own, who woke-up to no job in the town they were raised, and no company that their father, and his father had built. The answer to that is that things change -- except of course for those who have an ironclad grip on what has been taken in the process. We clearly do need change, change from feeding from that dreadful trough. 

John Rehill is a staff writer for The Bradenton Times. He covers local and state government, as well as environmental issues. He can be reached at john.rehill@thebradentontimes.com