What has happened to our nation?
I grew up on a small Pennsylvania dairy farm from the age of 4. Although we were poor (there was no industrial agriculture back then), my childhood was filled with fields, woodlands, creeks and dirt roads to explore. Daily life was hard work, but we were never hungry, because we had our own meat, eggs, milk and vegetables. I always felt safe, never hesitating to walk miles to a friend’s house to play or to meetup for a horseback ride.
As I grew into my teens, I began to ask serious and sometimes imponderable questions: What did I believe about religion? What did I want to do when I grew up? And this big one: How was it that I happened to be lucky enough to be born in the USA? I thought our country was the best in the world, and it never occurred to me that any other countrycould come close.
What has happened to that country? It has become a country full of hate and people willing,even eager, to kill innocent others for no greater reason than the color of their skin, the way they dress or their religion. Even children are not protected from the onslaught ofsemiautomatic gunfire.
Our government has become paralyzed, bought and paid for by big business and corporate power. We are engaged in endless wars that we can’t win but that feed hatred and terrorism among people whose way of life we destroy. Climatechange wreaks havoc.
Meanwhile, our (mostly Republican) legislators lack the courage to pass even the most commonsense laws to stem gun violence or protect the environment. Instead, they spend their time repeatedlywriting laws to take away health care from those who are most in need, increase tax breaks for the most obscenely rich among us and double down on the extraction of fossil fuels while attempting to undermine investment in clean,sustainable energy.
I no longer ask how I was so lucky to be born in this country. I now ask why we can’t build a society that provides equal opportunity for all our citizens. Why are we hellbent on destroying our only planet? And why can’t we ensure that we are all safe from random gun slaughter? GWEN E. CHUTE
Mt. Lebanon