The glass is leaking

Normally, I’m one who sees the glass half-full instead of half-empty, both for myself and for our country. Right now, I see our country’s glass severely cracked and leaking. I hope I’m wrong.

Our national Capitol building was invaded and trashed. The physical threat to it was halted within hours, but we were left with uncertainty about its future. With each day’s news we understand more about how vulnerable it was to massive destruction of the building itself and of the people inside it who are essential to our republic, our democracy.

And that, our democratic republic, is what I’m worried about. Even if we get through the next week or two without another riot or worse, is our collective American mind, heart, and soul so broken that we won’t be able to find our way through the existential threat that is the combination of pandemic and economic collapse?

Those two specters are two faces of the same threat. We cannot salvage our economy if we can’t curb covid-19. When we try to move ahead on both fronts, will Americans in the cleanedup halls of Congress and in communities across the country still be locked into political dogma that make belief in individual liberties the enemy of sane public health policy?

Other issues matter and divide us, but they are irrelevant if we can’t deal with this one by sealing up at least some of the cracks in the cup of American unity from which we all must drink or die of thirst. I worry that we can’t do that. I hope I’m wrong.

CHARLEY SANDAGE

Mountain View