My Dreams for 2019
As we start a new year, I shut my eyes and hope for a better year. My wishes:
- A rebirth of compassion. As residents of this country, we have come by our circumstances through the good fortune of being born in this time and place or having ancestors with the tenacity and foresight to find a better place to raise a family. Frankly, we did nothing to earn the circumstances of our place of birth except our position in front of the queue on the day we were born. Conversely, people without the good fortune of freedom, opportunity, and domestic tranquility did nothing to deserve their circumstances except to come to the front of the birth queue at the wrong time and place. Is it unreasonable to have compassion for people struggling to protect their families and give them a safe place to live and grow? How does separating families and building walls instead of bridges speak to our history of compassion? Many of our citizens have elected to take their good fortune for granted and worse yet, turn their backs on those who are in need. This must change in 2019 if we want to hold our heads high with pride.
- Rediscover collaboration and cooperation in addressing issues instead of the senseless attack mode in which we are mired. I am sick and tired of opening the news every morning and finding groups and individuals vilified merely because they have an opposing opinion. Whether there is any truth to the attacks is totally irrelevant. When does it stop? Wouldn’t it be refreshing to see attacks replaced with an appeal for sitting down together and hammering out a solution not based on insulting and demeaning 140 character lies?
- Elevating truth and honesty to the top of the behavior spectrum. It is unbelievably distressing to see leaders spew anything that they choose to fabricate without consequences. There was a time in the not too distant past when liars were relegated to the trash heap while they were typically criticized and ignored. Ironically, it is much easier to check the veracity of the speaker in today’s world of instant communication and data retrieval, yet we have gone in the opposite direction. Why? Because a significant percent of the population of this country doesn’t value integrity as highly as the entertainment or political value of the garbage being promulgated by people on their side of the aisle. How can a nation that seemingly relishes the characterization of a ‘Christian nation’ be so indifferent to truth?
- A resurgence of the recognition that we have the responsibility for the stewardship of our planet and environment. We urgently need to recognize that we have one planet on which to survive and if we ‘blow it,’ there is not another Kansas we can inhabit by clicking our heels three times. I literally cry every time I see another environmental regulation cast aside allowing the pollution of our air, earth, and water in the name of corporate greed. People who can influence policy in a positive fashion are pushed aside and replaced by incumbents without an iota of knowledge or background on environmental issues. I can only hope it is not too late, but for sure, every year we avoid our responsibility brings us closer to disaster.
- We need to reaffirm our historical status as a leader in the world where our values and moral underpinning were recognized as a model for other countries to emulate. For the most part, we have become the brunt of jokes and mockery as our leaders thumb their noses at global responsibility. I am not opposed to standing-up and insisting on reciprocity in our dealings, but I think this can be done with a dignity and maturity that seems to have fallen by the wayside. If we want to influence the rest of the world in shaping a community, that meets our mutual needs, we need to grow up and exercise our responsibility in a more mature manner.
- Lastly, I think it is time to set aside the caste mentality that has been growing for the last 20 years or so. We need to recognize that income and wealth disparity has a limit before it sows the seeds of our own destruction. When large numbers of our citizens need two or three jobs just to keep a roof over their head and basics on the table, while a tiny percentage of the population drinks bottled water in their gated communities, something is seriously wrong. The numbers speak for themselves. The so-called tax reform was just another income redistribution payback to pad the balance sheet of the wealthy. The majority of the ‘representatives’ we elect are now millionaires and have totally lost touch with the challenges of surviving at the minimum (or even middle-class) level of income. This is not how it was when I was growing-up in the 50’s and 60’s. Families could afford decent housing and a reasonable life style on a single wage earner’s salary. One parent could afford to stay home with the kids without financial ruin. Along the way, this model has gotten corrupted and it is rare that we don’t have latch-key kids in every home/apartment on the block. I am not talking about a Lexus in the driveway with a big red ribbon on the roof at Christmas. I am talking about basics – food, shelter, clothes, and transportation. We can do much better once we acknowledge that we created a culture of unprecedented income disparity. Chew on this awhile. The top 1% of wage earners earn more than 27 times the income of the bottom 99%, and the disparity keeps growing every year.
These are my half dozen wishes for a better society in 2019. Is it too much to ask for?