This commentary is by Bob Stannard of Manchester, an author, musician and former state legislator and lobbyist.
Picket lines and picket signs
Don’t punish me with brutality
Talk to me
So you can see
Oh, what’s going on (What’s going on) — Marvin Gaye
For quite some time now, America has been a nation divided. Unity seems to be as out of reach as inhabiting Mars.
It wasn’t always this way. America was more united during my parents’ generation, due in large part to the fact that we were in a brutal world war with Nazi Germany. America, Britain and even Russia came together to defeat a megalomaniac, psychopathic murderer, Adolf Hitler.
It was clear to most countries that the world could not survive if Nazism prevailed. Thus, we all came together to defeat Hitler and his perverse grand scheme of world domination.
Fast-forward 75 years. We are witnessing history repeating itself in real time. We have an out-of-control leader of Russia who, for no other reason than to try to reconstitute the USSR, has illegally invaded a sovereign nation that posed no threat to Russia. Vladimir Putin is laying waste to Ukraine to placate his twisted ego.
It’s never a good idea for leaders to surround themselves with “yes men,” yet that is exactly what unstable, insecure people do. They need constant gratification with a hefty helping of accolades in order to feel superior, when in reality they are little more than small, terrified people. They are the last people on the planet who should ever be in charge of anything more than making coffee in the morning, yet they end up with their finger on the nuke button.
In the case of America, we vote to put pathetic leaders in positions of high authority, thus we have no one to blame but ourselves for when we end up with a non-empathetic, authoritarian leader.
We’re divided by choice. Instead of coming together to focus on common ground, we opt to fight among ourselves over issues like abortion, gun control and big lies like the last election was stolen. Some, who truly believe that they are acting patriotically, went so far as to attack our Capitol and try to overthrow our democracy.
It’s no wonder we’re divided when a large segment of our population would rather believe in conspiracy theories promoted by QAnon and Fox News than they would the truth.
For instance, on Monday we witnessed in horror as an 18-year-old kid was able to stroll right into a gun store in Texas and purchase not one, but two assault rifles that he used to kill a group of small children in second and third grade.
What is the response from our leaders? You heard Sen. Chris Murphy, D-Connecticut, give a resounding, passionate speech on the floor of the U.S. Senate, which fell on the deaf ears of his colleagues across the aisle. We heard our president go off script and do what he does so very well, which was to tell it the way he sees it: from the heart. He rhetorically asked: “When in God’s name are we going to act?”
Again, his words were not heard by those of the opposing party. From the opposing party we hear words like “Thoughts and prayers go out to the families of the victims.” How heartwarming that must be for the parents whose child is no longer with them and will never grow up with the family. How comforting it must be to know that the party that is enslaved to the National Rifle Association would rather accept hefty donations from this corrupt organization than try to do something, anything, about gun violence in America.
Yes, Americans are distracted over issues such as those described above, and that’s just fine by those who live in bubbles unimpacted by the struggles of the common citizen. While the volume was being turned up on the white noise machine, this headline probably slipped right on by: A NEW BILLIONAIRE WAS CREATED EVERY 30 HOURS.
During the pandemic, we learned, a brand new billionaire was created EVERY 30 HOURS! How’d you and your family make out during the pandemic? Were you able to go from getting a paycheck on Friday to becoming a billionaire overnight? Probably not, but others sure did.
Think about this. A new billionaire was created every 30 hours during one of the hardest times in American history. What’s that telling you? Did this happen because someone was really working hard at two or three jobs and was able to save up enough money to buy an oil company and make a billion dollars overnight?
No, it happened because there were many people who already had hundreds of millions of dollars AND were able to make just enough more money to put them over the top into the billionaire category.
While we’re busy chasing the shiny object with our heads down, staring at the ground, there are many people who are working hard to keep you distracted and divided. I look forward to the day that all Americans unite and focus their attention on the ones who run this country.
I suspect that I’ll be colonizing Mars first.
