Why the America people are stuck in a rut of despair

National flags seem permanently stuck at half-staff. From Orlando to Dallas, Nice to Baton Rouge, tragedy upon senseless tragedy keeps our banner flying in the mourning position.

The world has always seen tragedy, but unlike our caveman ancestors, who were virtually powerless to change their savage world, in which death was accepted simply as a cost of living, we have the power to affect change. Sure, there still will be some violence, since the world will remain a dangerous place. But with a concerted effort, we could mitigate many risks and go a long way towards solving our problems.

But we don’t.

Instead, we’re stuck in a rut of impotence where nothing changes. And outside of meaningless lip service, nothing is being done to get us back on course. Absolutely nothing.

Taxes keep rising to rebuild roads and failing bridges, but it seems those needing the most improvement never get fixed. Illegal immigration remains in dire need of compassionate solutions — for citizen and immigrant alike — yet the problem remains unaddressed. Educational achievement, especially by inner-city students, is subpar, even abysmal, resulting in America trailing its international competitors in math, reading and science. College costs continue to skyrocket, yet grads, mired in student loan debt, find the job market lacking, and parents ques- tion the value of the diploma. And worst of all, the killings continue unabated and unaddressed.

Why did we veer so abruptly off-course? And how could it have happened in such a short time?

We became complacent. With no major enemy, we got fat, dumb and lazy. We became soft, losing the bold edge that always made America’s pioneering spirit unique. And with our newfound time, we got bored, and decided to turn our guns inward, sniping at each other while erasing years of hard-fought gains. We bowed to a new master — political correctness — and became a sanitized, hyper-sensitive society where the growing entitlement class, comprised of all races, became offended by everything, pleased by nothing, and eschewed the one thing that could unite us again: Communication.

Once upon a time, Americans would actually talk to one another about their differences as a common-sense way to work out solutions. It wasn’t easy — nothing worthwhile ever is — but things got done. Those days are gone. Partisan lines have become drawn like never before, and anyone attempting to talk with the other side is considered a traitor. Accelerating this phenomenon has been the 24/7 news cycle and social media.

What’s needed is national leadership to break the mold, reject the safe road, and address the issues in everyday language, free of partisan bickering.

That honest communication — where humans talk to one another rather than using their damn cell phones — would lead to the first constructive dialogue in decades.

Maybe then we could finally have that “honest conversation about race.” And maybe we could figure out that deporting 12 million immigrants not only isn’t feasible, but is economically harmful and unacceptably harsh, and that bringing them into the American fold — with restrictions, to be sure — is inherently American.

Maybe we could inject good old American competition into our schools to break the legacy of failure so that another generation of students — our children, indeed our future — won’t be hopelessly cast adrift without any real prospects for success.

Let’s get to work.