Anger and Despair

An Iranian official stated that the United States' threats of nuclear warfare were nothing but the product of "American anger and despair." An editorial by James Carroll states that "anger and despair so precisely define the broad American mood" and "We are in anger and despair because every nightmare of which we were warned has come to pass." This is exactly how I feel. I sit and read the headlines and watch as our country spirals out of control and into the hands of a warmonger. More than war are the threats we face at home, such as troubles over global warming (which IS happening, as scientist after scientist has warned), the depletion of our natural resources and the pollution killing our environment, our dangerous dependency on oil, the failing drug war, the sad state of education, the economic apartheid keeping the rich richer and the poor poorer, and on and on.

When will it stop? Are we really sliding into a place that is beyond redemption? Some say that the only way to survive is to look the other way. But it is precisely what got us here in the first place. It's like that NOFX song that I have quoted before: "It's funny there was no one left to notice when they came for us.” We have waited so long to use our voices that it seems almost useless to try now; that we are inaudible to the powers-that-be. But I’m still trying.